LatinaLista — Everyone, or most everyone, has heard about the G-20 Summit taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Sept. 24-25, attended by the world’s most powerful leaders to discuss the state and future of the global economy.
Yet, there’s another summit taking place this month and it also deals with an imperative issue facing the world’s nations — peace.
The 2009 Global Alliance Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace will convene in Costa Rica next week. The summit’s setting in Costa Rica seems only fitting since last month Costa Rica passed a legislative bill establishing a Ministry of Justice and Peace within its national government. Also, the country’s president, Oscar Arias, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
The Summit’s theme this year is Building Bridges of Peace and it will take place September 13 -21, 2009 in San José, Costa Rica. The goal of the Summit is to expand the Global Alliance network by involving highly-qualified Summit participants from at least 40 countries, who are motivated to develop peace infrastructure in their home governments.
Through workshops, lectures and activities to learn how to cultivate peace-building skills, the summit strives to create peace ambassadors to take the message and skills learned from the summit to their home communities.
While a trip to Costa Rica sounds like a perfect way to start the new work/school year, organizers of the summit know that not everyone can afford the cost of the trip. However, that shouldn’t keep anyone from attending the summit.
So, getting on board with 21st Century technology, organizers have created a complete companion web site of the summit’s events where people can virtually attend the summit through watching live streaming of summit events, participate in live chats, read blog posts and Twitter feeds of the summit, as well as, watch videos, look at pictures and read posted articles on the summit.
To be a part of the 2009 Global Alliance Summit for Ministries and Departments of Peace, just go to the web site and register.
“Peace is not a dream, it’s an arduous task. We must start by finding peaceful solutions to everyday conflicts with the people around us. Peace does not begin with the other person; it begins within each and every one of us.”
Costa Rica President Oscar Arias
