The Summit Council is pleased to present a Welcome Message from the new Co-Chair of our Board of Presidents, the Rt. Hon. Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, former Prime Minister of Barbados (1987-94) and current Ambassador of Barbados to China:
Greetings to my brothers and sisters, associates and colleagues in the Summit Council for World Peace. This is my inaugural message of peace to you.
Without doubt, the vast majority of the world’s population of seven billion people hope and yearn for world peace. Statesmen have striven for it. Religious clerics have prayed for it. Philosophers and poets have written creatively about it. So it is, so it has been, and so it should be!
What though is peace that is so much hoped for, and yearned after? Peace is a state that is positive, engendering, enabling, and ennobling. It emanates from within an individual, and it disseminates to all without, characteristics that are beneficial, wholesome, nurturing, harmonious, benign, and salubrious. It is at one with those qualities a Creator God shows to his offspring, and that true parents exhibit towards their children.
And yet, world peace remains an elusive dream. Everyday there are tensions and conflicts between individuals, and between social groups. Crime, violence, and terrorism disrupt the even tenor of domestic life. Civil wars break out between governments and people. Regional and international wars erupt and upset the balance of peace among nations. Must this absurd and senseless state of affairs continue for ever and ever? Can’t homo sapiens arrive at a more prudent and acceptable mode of living? Or is world peace a utopian illusion?
I do not think that the pursuit of world peace is a senseless quest. I believe it is a goal that is noble and attainable. Homo sapiens has been able to understand DNA, to penetrate the ocean’s depth, and to explore outer space and the regions of the planets. I believe that humankind can build upon the lessons left by the sages of old, and create an environment in which swords can be turned into ploughshares, and there can be peace and understanding among people and nations.
This is a message of hope, optimism, and realism. It is riveted in belief in a Supreme Being, and in the attributes of love, justice, equity, altruism, human rights, non-discrimination, accountability, benevolence, and kindness. It is above all a message of peace, of inner serenity, of how we perceive ourselves, and of how we perceive others. If our perceptions are sound and infused with love, they will lead us to generous behaviour. The key to all of this is understanding, cooperation, and the development of just individuals, just families, just societies, and a just world. I extend my hand in cooperating with you to help build that world upon the principles of the Summit Council for World Peace.
Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford.
August 2011
Dr. Antonio Betancourt, Secretary General
The Summit Council has been very active and had a strong Washington, DC and international presence through the 1980s to 1997. From 1997, we chose to work under the auspices of the Universal Peace Federation (www.upf.org) in order to help it become a well-established international non-governmental organization in more than 100 countries. Indeed, we helped UPF to achieve that goal. In mid-2008, we decided it was time for us once again to take our place in the history-making of the world, particularly in the area of peace and development as we did in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
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1. Dignity and empowerment begins with the human person, not any institution. Social justice obligates each person to work with others to perfect the social order to support the dignity and empowerment of every person.
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Premise: The Buckminster Fuller Challenge as mission: “How do we make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone?”
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Roundtable on the "Citizens Proposal for a Border between Israel and Palestine"
Summit Council Board Room
Washington, DC
August 9, 2011
On August 9, 2011, the Summit Council hosted a roundtable discussion among Middle East specialists in Washington, DC of the newly released "Citizens Proposal for a Border between Israel and Palestine" led by its co-authors, Dr. Andrew Wilson and Louise Strait. The session was moderated by Tarek Nahabet, National Coordinator, Global Campaign for Middle East Peace; the Campaign’s President, and Summit Council’s Director of Interreligious Affairs, Hon. Rev. Walter Fauntroy (D-DC), provided commentary (after the roundtable, Rev. Fauntroy left on a peacemaking mission to Libya with other religious leaders).
The Proposal delineates a border that would respect equally the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. This border provides a context for modifying some of the difficult relationships, formed over the decades, between Jews and Arabs. Its authors see the opportunity to tap into the beauty that is both the people of Palestine and of Israel in a way that could generate great dividends. Summit Council Secretary General, Dr. Antonio Betancourt noted that at a time when the issue of Palestinian statehood is coming before the United Nations, in the absence of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the borders outlined in this Citizens Proposal could become a starting point for negotiations for a Two State solution.
Dr. Wilson pointed out that a hallmark of the Citizens’ Proposal is its consistent effort to envision a border that seeks to minimize the stresses imposed on daily life by the constraints of the border. Such an aspect of a border proposal is seen as bringing a more feminine dimension into the traditionally male domain of border negotiations. To emphasize the point of these concerns, Ms. Strait added a more visceral dimension with photos and commentary of barriers that currently define de facto unilaterally determined borders.
The Citizens' Proposal was generally well-received by roundtable participants as a useful addition to existing proposals for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian border. Congressman Fauntroy solicited suggestions from meeting participants about possible locations for implementing suggested innovative proposals for economic development in the Palestinian territories, possibly in conjunction with the UN’s Millennium Villages Initiative. The areas of Ariel and Gaza were identified as possible candidate areas for further consideration.
The Citizens Proposal describes in detail one specific proposal for a border. The Summit Council invites both Palestinians and Israelis to examine this proposal and consider whether they would be satisfied that the described border could represent them—in what they would wish for themselves and what they would be willing to give to the other side—or at least serve as a good basis for negotiation. Because many citizens of the Middle East are religious, the co-authors said they made prayerful efforts in arriving at what they believe to be not only a Two State solution, but one which can work in meaningful ways for all citizens.
Read the Citizens Proposal, including maps, at its web site: http://www.israel-palestine-border.org
Or download a PDF of the Proposal here
NEW: Download a PDF of "Next Steps: Negotiating an Initial Border"
Read A Step by Step Guide to Israel-Palestine Border Talks
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Click here to view events from 2009 and 2010.
August 27, 2010
By Mark P. Barry
Early this month, cash-strapped North Korea offered to repay its long-standing debt with former socialist ally, the Czech Republic, through barter and offered 400 tons of ginseng. The Czechs responded they only use one ton a year, but would accept zinc ore. Then on August 15, in his Liberation Day address, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak proposed the nation adopt a unification tax to prepare for unification with the North, reflecting an anxiety about North Korea’s near-term stability and potential for collapse. These two events raise questions about North Korea’s current condition and the costs and benefits of reunification.
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The World Economy – Strengthening Democracy through Credit and Ownership
IN 1992, upon the collapse of the Socialist and Communist experiment in the Soviet Union, after more than 70 years of a state command economy, there were great pronouncements that capitalism had triumphed over Communism and socialism . Today, 17 years later we see clearly that peace and justice have by no means prevailed in the post-Cold War world.
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