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Presentation: UPF Vision 2010 - Part 2
Written by Dr. Michael Balcomb, Director of Communications, UPF-International
Thursday, February 18, 2010
UPF International Leadership Conference
Seoul, Korea, February 2010
Unofficial notes of presentation
UPF Today magazine is being published in Russian and Chinese. We have other editions. Here is the first Arabic edition. The Russian edition features the history of the North/South Korean conflict from the point of view of Russia and China. Here are the English and Spanish versions, especially featuring events in Europe. Also, we have the Universal Peace Federation calendar for 2010, featuring both solar and lunar days. It features UN commemorative days and the key celebration days of major religions.
No matter what language you speak, there is an opportunity to learn about this peace work in one of the UN languages. There are resources here to help you tell your colleagues and government ministers about the work of the Universal Peace Federation. Father Moon published his biography As a Peaceloving Global Citizen. We have translated an overview of the book in various languages, including most recently in Farsi so people in Iran and Afghanistan can read about it.
People have asked where they can get copies of the videos you’ve seen in this conference. On our website.
Our book Two Paths to Peace is an account of UPF’s work in Nepal over the past five years. UPF has played a leading role in brokering peace among the various political parties.
Here is your homework assignment when you leave this conference. You heard from one of our regions, Eurasia. We have 12 regional offices, and all the regional chairs and secretaries general are here at the conference. The person who can help you most in your nation is your regional secretary general.
Goals for 2010:
- Develop your UPF chapter. Go to the chapter page and check to see that the information is correct. UPF.org/your country name.
- Translate materials into your language. If you feel resources are needed in another language, I encourage you translate the material into that language.
Recently Father Moon appointed volunteers to work with the national chapters. We want to work with them, connect them with local Ambassadors for Peace, and build their capacity to use our materials.
- Appoint more Ambassadors for Peace. Father Moon gave us a target of appointing and educating 30 times the number of Ambassadors for Peace as the members of your parliament. Then organize them into Peace Councils based on the principles of interfaith understanding, strong marriage and family, and service.
- Hold educational conferences. Once you appoint Ambassadors for Peace, you need to educate them. Hold at least one national-level leadership conference modeled on this one. It should be held in the national parliament or congress. Work with your members of parliament or congress to host such a program this year. If that’s not possible, you can hold it in a city hall or in some other prestigious location.
- Help us communicate the UPF message. We have a large roster of UPF programming from our television productions. I challenge you to submit that to television stations in your country. Many of you have media contacts. Don’t be shy. Take the magazines home and give them to your best colleagues and contacts.
- Find co-sponsors to work with UPF to celebrate the UN commemorative days. It’s easy to hold an event by ourselves, but it has more impact by celebrating jointly. There are some key days: Day of Families (May 15) and International Day of Peace (September 21). You can contact diplomats in your country from African countries. The ambassador from Qatar sponsored an event. When an ambassador issues an invitation, the impact is greater.
- Support an interfaith council at the UN. We want to move forward with the proposal for an interreligious council at the UN. Almost ten years have passed since Father Moon spoke at the UN and said that “consideration should be given to the establishment of an interreligious council.” We are planning a ten-year anniversary celebration in New York and other nations. It was only a year after Father Moon’s call that the 9/11 attacks took place. Our vision is to wipe away that miserable history and make a new beginning. This year we need people to help draft the documents for such an interfaith union. By 2012 we want to have a foundation for nations to join such a union.
I want to thank you for your commitment and investment in this conference so far. Let every Ambassador for Peace and secretary general stand up and make this year a great success in the advancement of peace.
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