World March for Peace and NonViolence

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The World March will begin in New Zealand on October 2, 2009. It will conclude in the Andes Mountains (Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010. A permanent base of a hundred people of different nationalities will complete the journey.

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The World March

The World March will begin in New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, declared the “International Day of Non-Violence” by the United Nations. It will conclude in the Andes Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010. The March will last 90 days, three long months of travel. It will pass through all climates and seasons, from the hot summer of the tropics and the deserts, to the winter of Siberia. The stages will be the longest American and Asian, both almost a month. A permanent base of a hundred people of different nationalities will complete the journey.

Why?

Because we can end world hunger with 10% of what is spent on arms. Imagine how life would be if 30-50% of the arms budget went toward improving people’s lives instead of being used for destruction.

Because eliminating wars and violence means leaving human pre-history behind and taking a giant step forward in the evolution of our species..

Because we are accompanied by the voices of so many war-torn generations that came before us. The echo of their voices still resounds throughout the world, wherever armed conflict leaves its sinister memorial to the dead, disappeared, disabled and displaced.

Because a “world without wars” is an image that opens the future and seeks to become reality in every corner of the planet, as violence gives way to dialog.

The moment has come for the voiceless to be heard! Out of agonizing and urgent need, millions of human beings are crying out for an end to wars and violence.

We can make that happen by uniting all the forces of pacifism and active non-violence worldwide.

When?

The World March will begin in New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, declared the “International Day of Non-Violence” by the United Nations. It will conclude in the Andes Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010.

The March will last 90 days, three long months of travel. It will pass through all climates and seasons, from the hot summer of the tropics and the deserts, to the winter of Siberia.

Who is participating?

The March was initiated by “World Without Wars,” an international organization that has been working for 15 years in the fields of pacifism and non-violence.

The World March, however, will be created and shaped by everyone. Open to any person, organization, collective, group, political party, business, etc., that shares the same aspirations and sensibility, this project is not something closed. Instead, it is a journey that will be progressively enriched as different initiatives set their contributions in motion.

That is why this is an invitation to anyone and everyone to participate freely. So that wherever the March goes, the local people can contribute their creativity in a great convergence of multiple activities.

There’s space for everything the imagination is capable of conceiving.

The possible channels of participation are multiple and diverse, including virtual participation in the March through Internet.
This is a march by and for the people, with hopes of reaching most of the world’s population. For this reason we are asking all media to spread the word about this journey around the world for Peace and Non-violence.

What is going to happen?

In every city the March visits, local individuals and groups will organize forums, meetings, festivals, conferences, and events (sports, cultural, social, musical, artistic, educational, etc., depending on their own creative initiative.

At this time hundreds of projects have already been set in motion by different individuals and organizations.

What are our goals?

To denounce the dangerous world situation that is leading us closer and closer to nuclear war, which would be the greatest catastrophe in human history – a dead end.

To give a voice to the majority of world citizens who want peace. Although the majority of the human race opposes the arms race, we are not sending out a unified signal. Instead we are letting ourselves be manipulated by a powerful minority and suffering the consequences. The time has come to stand together and show our opposition. Join a multitude of others in sending a clear signal, and your voice will have to be heard!

To achieve the eradication of nuclear weapons; the progressive and proportional reduction of non-nuclear arms; the signing of non-aggression treaties among nations; and the renunciation by governments of war as a way to resolve conflicts.

To expose the many other forms of violence (economic, racial, sexual, religious…) that are currently hidden or disguised by their perpetrators; and to provide a way for all who suffer such violence to be heard.

To create global awareness - as has already happened with environmental issues - of the urgent need to condemn of all forms of violence and bring about real Peace.

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Comment by Scott on January 8, 2009 at 2:10am: World March Press Release January, 07, 2009

Israeli and Palestinian pacifists are examples for the whole world.

Right now, thousands of young Israelis are on the streets demanding that their
Government halts the invasion of Gaza. Many have been imprisoned, just like
the conscientious objectors, soldiers or conscripts that refuse to cross the
border into Palestinian territory.
The Youth of Palestine are protesting not only against the Violence of Israel –
they are also demanding that Hamas halts its barrage of missiles on the people of Israel..
It’s not easy to raise one’s voice for Peace when violence has been
unleashed, nor is it easy to bear the aggression against ones own people
when one is on the receiving end of other people’s fear and anger.
The Palestinian and Israeli pacifists are an example for the whole world. It is
not their point of view that is published in the newspapers; it is not their
efforts that the press shows. We only see, through the mass media, the propaganda
and the counter propaganda of those who lead the various factions, justifying their actions.
The people of both Israel and Palestine are living in fear, and the Violent elements on both sides are capitalizing on this fear in their own self-interest.
We, World Without Wars Australia, denounce the Violence of the State of Israel and we similarly denounce the violence of the armed Palestinian groups.
Israeli and Palestinian organizations are united in their support of The World March for Peace and Non-Violence and the awakening of a new consciousness denouncing the scourge of war.
Right now, the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli army must cease immediately.
The people of Palestine must take on Non-Violent solutions to their situation more readily. A Palestinian State is necessary. It is the responsibility of the International community for ensuring this does happen.
We live in a ‘global village’ - we are all responsible for the betterment, the Humanisation of the people of the World.
Situations of Violence are becoming more common and increasingly more extreme. We need to change the ‘psychosocial atmosphere’ that we, the people of Earth, are immersed in.
This is the objective of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence
Our most important stand is that of total World Nuclear Disarmament. This is the first step in the reversal of the violent direction in which we are heading. The process of the elimination of violence will be difficult – there are no doubts to this – but unless we start now, the future certainly looks bleak for Humanity
The World March for Peace and Non-Violence is a global cause, in which all races will converge, all peoples, all cultures and all religions for the surpassing of the ‘suffering’ we all experience today. Israeli & Palestinian organizations & people have wholeheartedly taken on this cause - they can see the logic in a Non-Violent solution.

Scott Wilkie
World Without Wars Australia..

Comment by Elisabetta Errani Emaldi on January 6, 2009 at 2:55pm: Two drops of light in the desert

Palestine, Israel,
wake up your sleeping hearts, scroll
your uncontrolled minds.
Let the sun of peace bright upon your souls.
Cut the chains of aggression
and you will discover that you are victims of your own resentment.

Two people, two drops of light in the desert!
Two people, two stars switched off by hatred!

Israel, Palestine,
collect the blood that you have sown
in the wind, and pour it into the precious goblet of peace.

Do not let anger
extinguish that sparkle
that still Light your sick hearts.

Palestine, Israel,
sown light, forgive, destroy animosity
that consumes you, with gestures of love and reconciliation.
Brothers, water the olive trees thirsty of peace
and love, because they want to grow in your deserts.

Two people, two drops of light in the desert!
Two people, two stars switched off by hatred!
Israel, Palestine,
turn on your suns and be guided by love!
Purify your polluted heart!

Quiet the sand storms
in your arid minds and your sorrows
will become a garden of light and peace.

Your deformed fruits,
have brought pain and destruction
on your stone hills thirsty of love.

The Almighty has not drawn boundaries.
Love has no colour or race.
Hatred is the direct line leading to the self-destruction.

Palestine, Israel,
turn on your sun and warm the fossilized and
suffering heart of your brothers.

Comment by Prophetees Leerma on January 4, 2009 at 1:23am: I shall be there in spirit. Thanks.

Comment by Uriel on January 3, 2009 at 3:44pm: Hello, I'm here to speak to you about… Peace.
Not peace between people, and neither among countries, but with the only person we have no choice but to live with until the end of our lives, the same person who is sitting in you chair. Look down for a moment, recognize the feet? The hands? Yes yes, with yourselves.
My biggest dream since I can remember myself was to live in peace with myself. To know him wide and open and to know even better to pass it on so other people could also live in peace and harmony with themselves, to live in a real true peace with all those parts in ourselves that we've not yet come to accept. It is not an obligation to accept them; it is also not an obligation to understand and to agree with them. Most chances you will not know, understand and accept all the different parts in you until the end of your lives. Does it mean we cannot live in peace with them? Does it mean that we cannot just accept that they are there and that they are not going anywhere even though we so don't agree with them? Even though we so don't desire their company? Think about it for a moment with yourselves, if you didn't have the option in any way to change those parts in you you don't agree, understand or accept, wouldn't you want any way to live your lives in peace? Relaxed? Calm? Why, isn't that what we all want? So let me put it on the table for you – even if you'll work on yourselves all your lives, go through workshops, learn, study, know more or less, or just live your lives and learn from experience, even if you will work on it day and night, every free moment you have (give or take) and put it in front of you as a goal, even if you'll live all your lives like this, you'll never, absolutely never, know and learn to understand every little bit within you. Does that mean you cannot live in peace with yourselves?
Love you all and thank you for doing this!
Uriel Thaller

Comment by Clicia Pavan on January 3, 2009 at 2:27pm: Viva em harmonia,com você e o mundo Se cada um de nós se conscientizar
Que a vida do nosso Planeta
Depende de como o tratamos
Ai sim, chegariamos, todos juntos
Pois a responsabilidade do sucesso
Ou fracasso,cabe acada um de nós
A vida é um presente de Deus a você!
Cuide bem da vida, que Deus lhe deu
Vamos dizer não, a violência,as guerras
A fome,ao abandono, ao descaso
Clicia Pavan
--------------
Vivere in armonia con se stessi e il mondo
Se ciascuno di noi è consapevole
Che la vita sul nostro pianeta
Dipende da come l'accordo
Oh yeah, vieni, tutti insieme
Dato che la responsabilità del successo
O il fallimento, è acada uno di noi
La vita è un regalo di Dio per voi!
Prendersi cura della vita che Dio vi ha dato
Noi diciamo no, la violenza, la guerra
La fame, abbandono, di incuria
Clicia Pavan
--------------
Living in harmony with yourself and the world
If each of us is aware
That life on our planet
Depends on how the deal
Oh yeah, come, all together
Because the responsibility of success
Or failure, it acada one of us
Life is a gift of God to you!
Take good care of the life that God gave you
We will say no, violence, war
The hunger, abandonment, neglect to
Clicia Pavan

Comment by Antonio SAntiago on January 3, 2009 at 4:47am: Thank you for inviting me to this list Monica. This year we will be prepared, along with many friends, for this first trip of the first history, of reconciliation of human be to human be through our "island" universal, the planet Earth.
A big salute to all!

Antonio Santiago

Comment by Anna Oberlin Russell on January 2, 2009 at 10:28pm: Thanks for the invite and for all the hard work you put into a page for peace. I have learned that I can be a peaceful person and hell still found me.

I HOPE WE WILL HAVE SOON A BETTER WORLD WITHOUT SORROW AND WAR, BUT ONLY LOVE HAPPINES AND PEACE

Inspire that I'm living in one of the World's most Peaceful country, my tears are running wild of happiness and I'm smiling all over my face! That we have kind people out their in this WORLD that care about another people. Paid it forward. I hope 2009 that all will stop.

Comment by Monica on January 1, 2009 at 7:15am: It is not possible to end a situation of violence with more violence

The Hamas armed group missile attacks on Israel is no justification for the Israeli military attack on Gaza. Neither does the economic blockade imposed on Palestine justify the suicide bomber attacks, nor the missiles from Hamas or any other armed groups in Palestine.

Occasionally the great world powers will support one side or the other, but the fear that is spread in the populations makes the violence grow even more, and so more people prefer to die than to live in fear. Violence leads to the dehumanization of society.

We reject the violence of the Israeli army and State on the Palestinian people.

We reject a violence that is justified as a “resistance” of the Palestinian armed groups. They both intimidate people with the purpose of having them join their so-called causes.

The clamor from the people can break this vicious cycle. Only if people express their repudiation for violence will they get their fellow citizens to stop this insane thirst for violence. The Israelis must stop the attack by their Army, and the Palestinians must stop the attacks by Hamas. A cease-fire must begin immediately.

We are all in danger, not just the Palestinians and the Israelis. Everyone the world over must join together under one voice: Total Nuclear Disarmament, now! No territories should be invaded, not even as a justification for terrorist attacks. All acts of violence must be repudiated. No ideologies or religions can justify violence.

This is the voice we must raise, all religious people, all atheists, and all human beings.

Comment by Carol K on December 30, 2008 at 9:29pm: Thanks for the invite and for all the hard work you put into a page for peace. I have learned that i can be a peaceful person and hell still found me. it snuck up on me like a snake in the grass. I pray for my enemy to find peace within herself, amen.
Peace and love,
Carol

Comment by matahari on December 30, 2008 at 1:16pm: "Peace is a question of will. Wars and conflicts are not inevitable," Martti Ahtisaari

To share compassion to persons and Earth are now soffering under bomb, we may sign a www.avaaz.org petition :
GAZA: STOP THE BLOODSHED, TIME FOR PEACE
now is the time to issue a demand to world leaders that the spiraling violence that has characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must come to an end.

Sign the petition below calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - and for peace to be achieved between Israel and Palestine in 2009.

Petition to the UN Security Council, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA:
We urge you to act immediately to ensure a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to protect civilians on all sides, and to address the growing humanitarian crisis. Only through robust international action and oversight can the bloodshed be stopped, the Gaza crossings safely re-opened and real progress made toward a wider peace in 2009.
Sign the petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=161485010&v=2605

Thanks to all. Please, tell your friend, quickly, in Gaza people is dieing. And may stay in compassion coscience, with a pure and pacific heart.