Global Peace symposium

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I attended a global peace symposium in Lucknow. The hosts were the venerable institution called CMS or Central Montessori School. Jagdish Gandhi started this institution nearly thirty years ago, with nothing more than a vision and prayer. Five years ago they got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Montessori school in the world with over 30,000 students. There was a primary conference, where Chief Justices from many countries around the world participated. I met the hoary bearded Chief Justice of Afghanistan, a lovely woman from Timor Leste (probably the newest nation around), from Uzbekistan, Kazhakstan, Bosnia, Nigeria and so on. Absent were the Chief Justices of the US and UK, as well as France and Germany. The Chief Justices were treated each day at the opening to a recitation of demands for social justice from the students of the Montessori school. And what a spellbinding performance the kids gave. Articulate, confident, aware, expressive. The Chief Justices ratified a demand to establish a world parliament. During the break out sessions various ideas were put forth on how to bring this about. One among them was a marvelous pair of people from Texas and Pennsylvania, who see a constitutional amendment to the UN as the way to bring this about. The "side show" in which I was a delegate was nearly hundred NGOs. I participated in brainstorming the future of education (clearly one that avoids the structural violence embedded into the colonial schooling system) to build a peaceful world.

I also got the opportunity to do a workshop for 90 minutes on Technology Initiatives for Peace.

Two people that I met, I have kept up correspondence with are
1. Matej Sedmak, Peace Hiker and citizen of the world. See his blog and his amazingly courageous and selfaware journey at http://peacehiker.com
2. Gemma Bulos, singer, songwriter and founder of the Million Voice Choir. Her website is at http://www.asingledrop.org. There is a clickable there that plays her rousing voice singing "We rise, WE rise, WE RISE". She is now doing fundarising for bringing clean drinking water to the poorest of the world.

The kids of CMS made a great impression on me. I would like to be in touch with several of them via email. Hopefully I will see them also the next time I am in Lucknow.

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