Jan. 21, 2010

The 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, to be held January 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland, is a defining moment for world leaders as they meet under the theme “Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild”. Over 2,500 leaders from more than 90 countries representing business, government, civil society, academia and culture will work together to address pressing challenges and future risks.

“Global multistakeholder cooperation lies at the heart of the Forum’s mission to improve the state of the world,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He said: “We have to rethink our values – we are living together in a global society with many different cultures. We have to redesign our processes – how do we deal with the issues and challenges on the global agenda? And finally, we have to rebuild our institutions.”

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, will deliver the opening address. Among world leaders participating are from Africa: Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of Tanzania, Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa; from the Americas: Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada (Chair, 2010 G8 Summit), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil and Álvaro Uribe, President of Colombia; from Asia: Lee Myung-Bak, President of the Republic of Korea (Chair, 2010 G20 Summit) and Li Keqiang, Executive Vice-Premier, State Council of the People’s Republic of China; and from Europe: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain.

Read the full WEF press release here

In Memoriam: H. E. Rodrigo Carazo (1926-2009)

December 10, 2009 — It is with great sadness that the Summit Council for World Peace announces the passing of the Co-Chair of its Board of Presidents, H. E. Dr. Rodrigo Carazo, President of Costa Rica (1978-82), who died yesterday in San Jose, Costa Rica at the age of 82.

President Carazo was not only a great patriot and statesman, but throughout his life was a relentless advocate of peace. He believed that peace depends on each and every one of us, and
considered spiritual and cultural achievements, as well as genuine love for one’s fellow man and the struggle for social justice, as the tools that can be used to sow peace and prevent violence. He emphasized that the main social mandate is to seek peace by all possible means.

During his term as President, in which he helped catapult Costa Rica to one of the leading nations for ecological tourism, he proposed the United Nations University of Peace, chartered in 1983 by the UN General Assembly, and he became its first rector. As he said at that time, “If you want peace, prepare for peace.” In recent years, he was very active in election monitoring missions in Latin America of the Carter Center, founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Dr. Carazo’s work of peace around the world could have won him the Nobel Peace Prize, but he never wished to promote himself or seek such honors. Just two months ago, he joined nine other former Latin American presidents in Lima, Peru, to warn against inequality, social exclusion and the arms race in South America, and propose solutions to the continent’s most pressing economic and social problems.

President Carazo was a great friend of the founders of the Summit Council, Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, since 1980, and very involved in the Council’s work since its inception. In particular, Dr. Carazo traveled to Seoul in 1985 with 17 former heads of state and government to greet Rev. Moon with honor immediately after the latter’s unjust 13-month incarceration in the United States. Moreover, in 1992 and 1994, as Chairman of our International Commission for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, Carazo led delegations of former heads of state to North Korea, each time reinforcing a friendship and trust he established with the late President Kim Il Sung. In October 2008, he publicly advocated in Seoul the building there of a World Peace and Unity Temple that could be a common home for all the world’s major religions. In May this year, he led a special Summit Council program at our Washington headquarters on prospects for the improvement of U.S. relations with Cuba under the Obama administration.

President Carazo is survived by his beloved wife, Estrella, Co-Chair of our Board of Presidents, and four sons. Truly a giant among statesmen who endeavored for peace has left us. Our deepest hope is that his legacy of tirelessly pursuing the achievement of peace around the world will continue to inspire men and women in the years to come.

Dec. 3, 2009

The South Korean government plans to develop its border areas with North Korea into a center for inter-Korean cooperation, international peace and ecological protection. The plan was announced by the ROK Ministry of Public Administration and Security, which will designate the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as an ecological preserve to protect rare wildlife and the natural environment. More than 3,000 rare species of animals and plants are found in the 907-square-kilometer heavily fortified border. The South Korean government plans to build a peace park, host a United Nations’ peace conference and establish an international peace-themed university near the DMZ.

Read the full article here

September 26, 2009

The G-20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, assessed the progress made addressing the global financial crisis and agreed to maintain steps to support economic activity until recovery is assured. They further committed to additional steps to ensure strong, sustainable, and balanced growth, build a stronger international financial system, reduce development imbalances, and modernize the architecture for international economic cooperation. The leaders designated the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation and agreed to have a G-20 Summit in Canada in June 2010, alongside the G-8 Summit, and in Seoul, Korea in November 2010. South Korea will chair the G-20 throughout 2010.

Read the Leaders’ Statement here.

September 24, 2009

Dr. Arnold S. Relman, M.D., professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, argues on the web site of Tikkun Magazine that President Obama cannot meet his criterion of signing a health care bill which does not add to the U.S. national debt unless health care reform includes eliminating the present profit motive from medicine. This includes licensing doctors so that they get a fixed salary rather than making profits from prescribing more tests, procedures and visits that increase their incomes. Relman, also a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, explains in Tikkun why the reform that is needed must go beyond a “public option” so that it can eliminate the constant growth of medical costs. Tikkun states that Dr. Relman’s analysis is extremely important because it helps people understand why the current plan to expand coverage by mandating coverage — without creating a vigorous public option to lower costs, and without challenging the ability of health care providers to raise costs — will bankrupt the system and provide insurance companies and others with the argument that “we tried government intervention in health care and all it succeeded in doing is to raise the costs for everyone and eventually led to collapse.” The Summit Council believes Relman’s plan is an example of the “Just Third Way,” as featured on our page devoted to Economic and Social Justice

Read Dr. Relman’s full article here

September 21, 2009

A new paper by economist Goohoo Kwon at Goldman Sachs argues that the economy of a reunified Korea could be larger than France and Germany and possibly Japan by the middle of this century. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kwon says “the risks of unification need to be reevaluated, particularly after the rapid development of countries such as Vietnam and Mongolia that had state-run economies like North Korea’s.”

The Journal adds, “Mr. Kwon’s study [suggests] that the North’s huge growth potential could help offset the slowing growth of South Korea, burdened by limited natural resources and a fast-aging population. North Korea has huge mineral deposits and a population that is younger and growing twice as quickly. Using long-term forecasts Goldman Sachs has previously published for industrialized countries, Mr. Kwon concluded that the gross domestic product of a united Korea would be the world’s eighth-largest in 2050 at $6 trillion, surpassing France around 2040 and Germany and Japan later that decade.” The Journal observed,”Nearly all previous economic reports on Korean unification focused on the costs that South Koreans will face, and ignore or play down investment and business opportunities that may arise.”

Read the full Goldman Sachs report here.

September 18, 2009

According to the Carnegie Endowment’s Senior Associate, Uri Dadush, the upcoming G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, September 24-25, which brings together leaders of the largest developing and industrial economies, is the best available option to deal with the post-crisis world. Although he says the G-20 assembly is larger than necessary, “it is nevertheless a big improvement on the G-8, which is not representative of today’s global economy, and on any UN-style universal assemblies, which are far too large to be effective.”

Dadush adds that although the Great Financial Crisis is far from over, a stimulus-triggered recovery is now taking hold. “The contours of the post-crisis economy are already emerging—from the sharply rising public debt levels in most industrial countries to the severely impaired balance sheets of banks and households in countries at the epicenter of the banking disaster, including the United States, the UK, and several smaller European countries. At the same time, China, India, Brazil, and many other emerging markets, which were badly affected at first, demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of the crisis and have confirmed both their attractiveness as long-term investment destinations and their growing economic and political clout.”

He then outlines four challenges for the G-20 Summit: what kind of recovery; when to withdraw stimulus; how to avoid the same crisis in the future; and, what is the G-20’s long-term agenda.

Read Dadush’s full article here.