Stories
The Culture of Peace News Network continued
Missions for the Culture of Peace
Travels with Lindsay in the USA
Vacations with Lindsay in the Caribbean
Vacations with Kiki in Reunion
The geometry of time
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Realizing that Internet work was insufficient to promote the global movement for a culture of peace, I undertook 39 foreign missions, as well as numerous speaking engagements in the United States in the period 2001-2013 as shown on the attached list, i.e. an average of 3 or 4 per year. In most cases the expenses were paid by the inviting organization, although in the end I did not make any money this way.
With Anke Kooke (left) and Shelley Anderson (right)
at Anke's retirement event in 2005 in Amsterdam
Click on photo to enlarge
At first the missions tended to follow up the work of the UNESCO culture of peace initiative. Hence I went to Korea and Japan with Enzo Fazzino of UNESCO to try to implement our proposal for measurement of a culture of peace, and I went repeatedly to Canada as a guest of Bob Stewart the educational foundation he had established to follow the Canadian Committee for the International Year for the Culture of Peace. My trips to Spain were taken in conjunction with Federico Mayor who had followed up his retirement from UNESCO with a Fundación Cultura de Paz.
On one mission to Egypt to take part in the international meeting the Life-Link Friendship Schools, I developed a culture of peace initiative for Mayor's Fundación with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and this led to two later missions to develop this initiative. Unfortunately, it eventually collapsed when Mayor failed to pay money that he owed to them.
Over time, I concentrated more and more on a strategic approach of developing local culture of peace initiatives that could ultimately be linked into a global network. By 2009 this had become the explicit strategy described in my trilogy of books. The eight missions to Canada culminated in a city culture of peace initiative for Hamilton, Ontario. The six missions to Spain culminated in a city culture of peace initiative for Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona). The five missions to Brazil, including participation in two World Social Forums, led to reinforcing the city culture of peace started by Lia Diskin in São Paulo and establishing a new initiative with Helena Lourenço in Santos.
Speaking to the Japanese Association for the Culture of Peace in 2006
Click on photo to enlarge
Lindsay went with me on missions to the UK in 2003, Holland and Egypt in 2005, and Canada and Switzerland in 2007 and we combined the missions with vacations, including wonderful stays in Iceland in 2005, in the Canadian Rockies and along Lake Loman in 2007. However, increasingly I undertook the missions with Kiki instead and the two of us came to share the excitement of the global movement for the culture of peace. This led inexorably, it seems, towards my eventual divorce from Lindsay.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme