LatinaLista — Is the world addicted to violence?
It’s a question that seems to get validated more and more each day. Whether it’s the senseless daily cartel murders in Mexico or the torturous actions by the Taliban or the millions of other random acts of violence committed every day in every country around the world, violence has become an accepted part of our daily lives.
It’s a sad commentary on our society that when news of a new killing is broadcast or published we don’t even blink an eye but snickers can almost always be heard when someone wishes for peace in the world.
Peace is no longer just an abstract wish. Thanks to individuals, mainly mujeres, peace is becoming more and more of a concrete ideal that can be realized — but more people do have to talk about it to make it a reality.
Today, marks the first day of the internationally observed PeaceWeek Summit. Unlike other conferences of global importance that are usually held in far-off locations, the PeaceWeek Summit is going cyber.
It’s billed as the “largest virtual peace summit” ever created. The PeaceWeek Summit consists of live teleseminars, all accessed online, hosted by an international roster of speakers ranging from politicians and ambassadors to musicians and people who got fed up with the violence in their communities and brokered local peace initiatives.
Attendees can access all the sessions with free registration for the summit at the site. After registering, registrants receive a calendar of the sessions so they can be watched live or looked up for later viewing among the recordings posted on the site.
Yet, the organizers of PeaceWeek want attendees to interact with one another — regardless of where they live on the planet. For that reason, the conference has adopted “MaestroConference to allow for breakout groups, networking and other interactions.”
So far, over 14,000 people from 114 countries have registered for the PeaceWeek event.
PeaceWeek begins Sept. 14th and culminates on the UN International Day of Peace (Sept. 21st).
Are we the generation that will make that dream a reality?
In the years ahead, we have the opportunity to help wean the world of its addiction to violence by harnessing best practices, deepening our personal commitments, healing ancient wounds, building bridges between cultures, advancing the science of peace, and teaching our children to live peacefully. In fact, most of the “technologies” for creating peace at all levels of society are well advanced – we simply need to share them on a wider scale.
The broad trend of human evolution is to move beyond violence. Given the scale of global crises, we must accelerate that evolution and learn to live, collaborate, and create in a more harmonious way.
PeaceWeek will unite pioneers from around the world together for the largest virtual peace summit ever created, culminating with the International Day of Peace on Sept. 21st. It will be a celebration and exploration of everything that is working to foster peace, from the family level to whole nations.
