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We,
The World
Tipping
Point
Initiatives
(to move humanity
off the path of catastrophe
and towards a world that works for all)
These Tipping
Point
Initiatives were originated by, or are in collaboration with,
We, The World. Sponsorship
is needed and welcomed for each. Budgets on request. Our currently running
and proposed projects include:
- 11 Days of Global Unity
September 11-21 - annual worldwide promotion of peace
and sustainability with over 700 associated events in more than
60 countries. Supporters of the launch included Nobel Peace Laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Deepak Chopra,
Amnesty International and many others. To get involved
click
here.
- Public International
Action Campaign Events (scroll down page)
every 3 months (on the Equinoxes and Solstices), each time raising awareness
and taking action in communities around the world on a specific global
theme or concern. This is a proposed expansion of the Local Action/Global
Participation organizing model (established by 11 Days of Global Unity)
to 4 times a year. The series could be called "Our Voices, Our World".
Proposed themes include:
- Climate Change - What We Can Do, What We Can Expect
- Our Money, Our World - You and the Global Economy
- Ending the Mass Extinction of Species - We're All Endangered
- Peace in the 21st Century - An Imperative for Survival
- The Wisdom of Partnership Culture - Ending the Era of Winners and
Losers
- Media in the Public Interest - for a World that Works for All
- Women and the Future of Humanity
- Transforming Government so it is Of, By, and For the People
- Green Energy For All
- Reconciliation and Understanding - Healing the Wounds that Divide Us
To get involved click
here.
- Campaign 2020 We, The World
is supporting the development of a global social enterprise
that brings together non-profits, businesses, government organizations
and large numbers of people to achieve Sustainable Earth by the
year 2020. Al Gore and many others have already taken part
in early research and development for this initiative. To get involved
click
here.
- Global Unity Calendar -
linking and promoting grassroots campaigns, programs and other activities
for a culture of peace, environmental stewardship, sustainability
and transformation in communities around the world. This worldwide
calendar is a component of Global Resources Networking for
Change Agents. To get involved click
here.
- Global
Resources Networking for Change Agents - a breakthrough
model of collaboration and mutual support we are developing that
will allow 1,000s of socially conscious organizations and individuals
to effectively work together so that a breakthrough anywhere can be
a breakthrough everywhere! To get involved click
here.
- Now Is The Time Campaign
- Now Is The Time (the song written by We, The World Governing Board
member Troy Lush) is an anthem for the global movement of environmental
care, social justice, and peace (a ³We Are The World² for the new millennium).
It is also a catch phrase for this movement (like ³Just Do It²). In addition,
Now Is The Time is a major media campaign that disseminates
the song and catch phrase throughout many sectors of global culture, directing
people to existing organizations and causes where they can take immediate,
tangible action. To get involved click
here.
- The BetterWorld Show
- a new internet-based reality show about activist-volunteers who attempt
to create a global, holistic, better world movement. Create your YouTube
BetterWorld Show auditions - the best of which are highlighted on BetterWorldShow.com
To get involved click
here.
- Pass
It On Students Mentoring Students Program - empowering
young people to have the experience of making a positive difference in
others' lives. To get involved click
here.
- Our Voices, Our World - using
music and the arts in uniquely designed events to build awareness
and involvement especially for young people. To get involved click
here.
- Inspired Futures
Campaign - Inter-Generational Partnerships for Livable Futures,
New York/Wellington, New Zealand. The Campaign develops youth as Leaders
of the Next Generation through sustainability literacy, and systemic
change literacy for tomorrow's leaders. To get involved click
here.
- Television/Internet
Public Service Announcement "Your Voice Matters" - featuring
a mix of celebrities and indigenous people raising awareness about
a variety of issues and inspiring involvement in the solutions. To
get involved click
here.
- We, The World Feature Length
Film and Coordinated Campaign - The epic story of how a young woman
inspires the world to come together to end poverty, eco-damage and war.
This film can ignite the imagination and spark millions of people
to participate in creating a world that works for all. To
get involved click
here.
- The International
Truth and Reconciliation Hearings (scroll down the page)
- a program for healing and reconciliation between groups with a
history of conflict in each country. To get involved click
here.
- 10
Million Clicks For Peace is a massive internet campaign
to raise millions of dollars for refugees and peace education organizations
while disseminating writings and awareness about achieving personal
peace and happiness. It is endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Arun
Gandhi, Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Robert Thurman,
and many others. To get involved click
here.
More program details follow:
11 Days of
Global Unity
Creating a Culture of
Peace
Celebrating a Sustainable
Future
Annually September
11 - 21
Culiminating on the International Day of Peace
Now with over 700 events in more than 60 countries
Learn more...
Our Voices, Our World
PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
"Stewarding Global Conversations" - Joe Firmage
This ongoing series is designed to establish a new global tradition
of mass public involvement in the betterment of the world! Every few months
(and eventually once a month!) there will be a time for worldwide public
gatherings that many cities participate in simultaneously linked by satellite
broadcasting. Each of these highly promoted Events in this series of global
conversations will focus on a specific issue of planetary concern and
will feature engaging activities (such as concerts) coordinated with targeted
civic actions.
Together with our other programs these Events will provide an ever-growing
number of people the opportunity for personal transformation by bringing
meaning and purpose into their lives as they contribute to creating a world
that works for all.
The series will utilize a continuing media campaign with talk show appearances
by visionary thinkers, authors, and celebrities, public service ads and
much more.
Event topics include:
Peace in the 21st Century - An Imperative for Survival
Making the Transition from Fossil Fuels to Renewable Energy
Women and the Future of Humanity
Reconciliation and Understanding - Healing the Wounds that Divide Us
Each participating country's Primary Location Center will feature one
or more of the following modes of public engagement:
* festivals
* concerts
* town meetings
* discussions and advertising on major media
* rallies
* conferences
* civic actions
* teach-ins
* media appearances
* arts presentations and performances
* celebrations
Key event objectives:
* To ignite public interest and involvement
* To generate mass support for organizations and coalitions whose
practices are beneficial to the planet
* Increase pressure and action regarding current critical situations
such as particular instances of social injustice, habitat/species destruction,
unethical corporate or other institutional activities, upcoming institutional
decisions that will affect many people's lives, negotiation breakdowns
between clashing national or cultural groups, and so on
These large action-oriented events will help to dispel skepticism about
each person's ability to actually make a difference.
We anticipate that our ongoing media exposure will substantially increase
support for many existing efforts.As a result, many new people will become
aware of the issues and how they are affected by them. They will begin
to participate in our Event co-sponsors' local programs and activities.
Because it is built-in that these Events happen periodically, the problem
of follow-up, where people run out of steam after an inspiring experience,
is minimized.
We have launched the first of these Public International Events with
11 Days of Global Unity
InterConnect
Collaborative Communications for a Caring
World
Launched in February 2003, InterConnect is designed to integrate all of
our communications resources and widely disseminate information about the
events, actions and ideas of our member organizations, advisors and colleagues.
InterConnect
has three components:
A. MEDIA PRODUCTION
- Student-UN
Videoconference Series Building Peace and Security in the 21st Century:
Each event of this series links schools, the United Nations and featured
speakers which have included Dr. Jane Goodall, Congressman Dennis Kucinich
and many others. Information is disseminated and discussed about conflict
prevention through creating peaceful, sustainable societies.
Each videoconference has involved hundreds of students, faculty and others.
Education Update (which reaches 200,000 educators) has made
our Sept. videoconference the Cover
Story of their 8th Anniversary issue! Utne Magazine website
also ran a feature entitled "All About Solutions"
about the launch of our Videoconference Program. Excerpts from the first
videoconference were broadcast on the INN Report with a viewership
of tens of thousands via the Dish Network.
- VISUAL VOICES TV Show is
produced collaboratively by members of the Arts and Media Task Force of the
The Foundation For Ethics And Meaning
and Co-Sponsored by We, The World (See Visual Voices)
B. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
We are helping to create a wider audience and expand public support and
participation in the activities of our growing member list of visionary
thinkers, activists, authors, alternative media and organizations. And we
are developing web and email systems to even more effectively disseminate
the large amount of information we receive in the future.
Examples of events and actions that we widely informed people about include:
- The American Spirit, Values And Power (WTW Co-Sponsored)
Conference convened by the New York Open Center and the Continuing Education
& Public Programs of CUNY Graduate Center. Speakers included: Jerry
Mander, Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman, Baldemar Velasquez, Satish Kumar, Nina
Utne, John Mohawk, Leslie Cagan, Carl Anthony, Sarah Van Gelder, Danny Schechter
and many others.
- Nonviolent Communication Workshops (WTW Co-Sponsored) with International
Peacemaker Marshall Rosenberg and other NVC leaders
- February 15th Peace March (we issued an extensive international
event calendar) and other peace rallies/events
- The PlaNetwork Conference (WTW Co-Sponsored)
in San Francisco: Networking a Sustainable Future. Speakers included:
Hazel Henderson (Consultant on sustainable development, Board
Member of Worldwatch Institute and author of Life Beyond Global Economic
Warfare), Joe Firmage (Founder of US Web and ManyOne Networks),
and Carol Hansen Grey (Executive Director of Women of Vision and Action),
Wes Boyd (Co-founder of MoveOn.org), Leif Utne (Founder
of Utne Online and the Utne Café), Jonah Wittkampter (Global
Youth Action Network) and many others.
- Visual Voices TV Show Series (WTW Co-Sponsored): A new and unusual
look at how voices in media, the arts and beyond are shaping our world.
- Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Peace Revival
- Nonviolent Peaceforce Meeting: Trained, international, unarmed,
civilian peacekeeping force for conflict areas
- Interfaith Center Awards Dinner Honoring Archbishop Desmond Tutu
with Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis
- Global Entertainment And Media Summit (WTW Co-Sponsored)
- Focusing: A Way to Deep Inner Connection
C.
GLOBAL RESOURCES NETWORKING
Connecting caring organizations globally so that
a breakthrough anywhere
can be a breakthrough everywhere!
Overview: This breakthrough model of collaboration and mutual
support will allow 1,000s of socially conscious organizations and individuals
to effectively work together to create a world where people live in harmony
with each other and with the rest of nature. At a time when there is so much
suffering in the world, and the obstacles to peace and sustainability are
so great, the Global Resources Network (GRN) will provide the resources
and interconnectivity to facilitate local, regional and international civil
society education, collaboration and organizing.
The GRN will accelerate the formation of an international movement of
concerned and informed people that generates political will and the enlightened
consumer power needed to create a world that truly works for all!
Purpose: We seek to develop the Global Resources Network as a comprehensive,
collaborative, worldwide civil society communication network with innovative
web-based technological resources. We envision this as a tool to:
1) significantly improve the effectiveness of civil society
organizations and socially conscious businesses worldwide through active
collaboration utilizing a global organizing matrix with highly-enhanced,
inter-organizational communications capabilities, and
2) organize large-scale Public International Events that
engage, inform and involve a global audience. (See below)
To facilitate local, regional and international civil society collaborations
and organizing,.the web-based GRN will feature a
Global Organizing Matrix:
- A WORLDWIDE EVENT CALENDAR
- A COLLABORATIONS BULLETIN BOARD/LIST-SERV to facilitate exchanges
of resources, services and support
- SPECIAL "MEGA PAGES" with multiple links to websites of existing
major networks
- A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK with enhanced multimedia capabilities
For more details please go to Global Resources Networking.
Other Programs Include:
INTERDEPENDENCE DAY
Co-Existence or No Existence
Declare your Interdependence September 12, 2005 as part of: 11 Days of Global Unity
In proclaiming Interdependence Day, we are acknowledging the evident
- that we are all connected, and that when one thread in the web of life
is sundered, all are diminished. Where equity and mutual respect prevail,
all benefit. Interdependence is a reality, a gift, and a responsibility.
We, The World, with many other non-profit co-sponsors and sponsored by
ManyOne.net, has launched Interdependence Day September 1st as the start
of Culture of Peace month. By launching it at the 2002 Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, the work and spirit
of civil society at the Summit can continue each year as an annual tradition
of global celebration, information and action. Let us know if your organization(s)
would like to Sponsor or Co-sponsor our Interdependence Day celebration 2005.
We celebrate the connections that inexorably relate all life and the
supporting environment in an interrelatedness of sustenance and sustainability.
We celebrate the animals, insects, birds, fish, trees, waters, air and earth,
who dance with the humans in a network of interdependence. This is a day
of profound recognition of our debt to each other and our joy in our connection.
ART FOR CHILDREN'S SAKE
"The world's children would sing to you had they a voice.
We must be their voice until we can return
their collective and individual voices to them."
- Paul Weingarten.
We, The World is collaborating with artist Paul Weingarten and art buyer
John Krysko to raise money for the relief of children in danger around
the world. We are connecting artists with the organizations and individuals
who are steadfastly addressing the conditions that rob children of their
innocence: hunger, poverty, disease, forced labor/slavery, refugee crises,
forced military duty.
On December 10, 2002, in conjunction with the Interfaith Center of New
York's Winter Festival, We, The World officially launched this program and
raised funds to provide relief for children in Ghana!
Paul's vision: "Exhibitions of works will commence and patrons will buy
not pictures but lives. The world's children are our children. We are their
only hope."
THE INTERNATIONAL TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION HEARINGS
Recognizing persistent pain as an indication of a deeper problem applies
to whole countries as well as individuals. By listening to and acknowledging
the pain of its members, a society can begin to heal itself. But only when
the sources of the pain are eliminated will the wound disappear. For many
societies, some sources of pain lie outside their country. This is why
the process must be done on a global scale.
The International Truth and Reconciliation Hearings idea was inspired
by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (which in turn
was influenced by programs begun in Latin America). People in South Africa
who would normally have been imprisoned or executed were given amnesty in
return for telling the truth about their actions during the apartheid era.
Emotional outpourings were commonplace as victims and others also told their
stories. Over time, many people on all sides began to understand, and to
a certain extent feel closer to, one another.
Unlike South Africa, our Hearings will not be legal proceedings.
Rather, they will be public forums for dialogue and understanding. The Hearings
will allow members of historically clashing cultures to publicly tell their
respective stories in a safe and supportive environment. UN/NGO supported,
the Hearings will initially be focused on one country or region at a time,
as long as no major conflict is currently taking place there. They will
bring together representatives from cultures in that area as well as from
those countries which had a colonial or other oppressive relationship with
it.
The core values of We, The World such as compassion and inclusion will
form an ever-present context within which history can be examined and stories
can be told. History may reveal that it was primarily powerful individuals
(rather than entire ethnic or religious groups) who were originally responsible
for bringing cultures into conflict and initiating cycles of violence and
retaliation. This could be new information for biased people who have assumed
that it is the "innate characteristics" of most members of particular ethnic,
religious or other groups (rather than distrust, insecurity and friction
continuing from the original struggle) that causes conflict to persist.
By openly acknowledging the suffering that occurred, and its relationship
to the current situation in a country, people from clashing cultures can
begin to understand and empathize with each other. Of course, the participants,
though from different backgrounds, would all be interested in achieving
reconciliation as well as making the truth public. Angry militants who seek
revenge and retaliation would not be involved except in very carefully controlled
circumstances.
The Hearings will be televised on a regular basis and documentary films
will be made of them. The TV and film production teams will as much as possible
be composed of people from all sides of the particular clashing cultures
or countries examined in each hearing.
The International Truth and Reconciliation Hearings will include
and empower experts whose lives have been devoted to the relationship between
the particular clashing cultures. Each one will become a forum to increase
understanding, respect and connection and will derive the global support
We, The World brings to all its programs.
WORLD COMMUNITIES INTERCHANGE
Using teleconferencing, and translators if necessary, this program will
allow communities from several countries to share information and to provide
mutual support in order to address similar local issues, while in the context
of global interconnectedness. These "Town Hall" style meetings will provide
community leaders, students, religious groups, professional groups, arts
groups and other citizens the opportunity to compare notes with their counterparts
from other cultures.
Arts presentations, joint performances, collaborative projects and cultural
exchanges will enhance this program and help build community and solidarity
around the world.
Community Interchanges will primarily occur as part of the Public International
Events, using each event's theme or issue as a basis for activities and
discussion.
ETHICAL IMPACT REPORTS
Developed by Michael Lerner and the Foundation for Ethics and Meaning,
these reports will provide a means to measure the effects of particular
corporations, industries, governments and other institutions. Reports will
be based on the perspectives of all the stakeholders including: stockholders,
employees, the communities affected, and consumers. By publicizing reports
from regions around the world, using indexes similar to the Consumer Price
Index, we can heighten the public's global consciousness and assess our progress
toward having a world where each life matters.
We CAN
(We, The World's Change Agent Network)
Mahatma Gandhi said "We must become the change we seek in the world."
We, The World would like to connect those who are following his call. We
are proposing the creation of a million+ member pool of social change agents
networked together for the common good! This will be a major resource, supporting
efforts of social activists around the world and helping to grow essential
progressive social movements.
We CAN members will benefit from and contribute to the Public International
Events. Our goal is to generate massive support for specific important
social causes as we globalize the transformative experience of connecting
with others to improve the world!
We have received excited enthusiastic responses to our programs by leaders
of:
The Jane Goodall Institute, The Global Security Institute, the Club
of Budapest, the Earth Charter Movement, the Center for Partnership Studies,
the Global Peoples Assembly, the Waterside Support Center, the Gesundheit
Institute, Jubilennium, the Center for Visionary Leadership, the Middle Powers
Initiative, V-Day 2001 at Madison Square Garden, the Tribal Link Foundation,
the Calvert Social Investment Fund, Women of Vision and Action, the Foundation
for Ethics and Meaning, the War and Peace Foundation, the Gandhi-King Season
for Nonviolence, Pathways to Peace, United Youth International, the World
Peace Prayer Society, The Interfaith Center of New York, the International
Montessori Council, and many others.
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