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#001, 24 October 2002 My
Dreams for Peace Education
Dear Brothers and Sisters for a Better
World,
I have always said if I
were Secretary General of the United Nations, I would start
each day with a message to you, my dear friends and I would
call it "Good Morning World". My dream for our Earth is
Peace and now that I have finished my 5000 Ideas and Dreams
for a Better World (www.robertmuller.org) and to celebrate
the 57th birthday of the United Nations, with your
permission I would like to start "Good Morning World" and
share one Peace idea a day.
I also have a very
special thank you to my friend Douglas Gillies, the author
of my biography 'Prophet, the Hatmaker's Son', which is such
a gift and it was also released today.
And please let me hear
from you too..With you I will start the next 5000
Ideas...
May Peace Prevail on
Earth,
Robert Muller
My Dreams for Peace
Education 1996
(The full acceptance speech follows this - below.)
UN Secretary General U
Thant, a former school headmaster from Burma, and my
spiritual master, often said to me when I was his assistant:
"Robert, there will be no peace on Earth, if there is not a
new education." He was right. I will therefore reproduce
here, in his memory, my peace education dreams given in my
acceptance speech of the UNESCO 1989 Peace Education
Prize.
Today I dream:
1. that all schools of
this Earth will teach about the United Nations, which is the
young people's greatest hope and will be their instrument of
global action when they are grown up;
2. that all governments
which have not yet done so, will ratify the University for
Peace, this magnificent dream being implemented in
demilitarized Costa Rica;
3. that all schools and
universities of this Earth will teach peace and non-violence
and will become schools and universities of
peace;
4. that Unesco recommend
to the United Nations to proclaim an International Year for
Global and Peace Education;
5. that children in all
schools of the world will celebrate the international days
proclaimed by the United Nations, for instance the
International Day of Peace held on the third Tuesday of
September, when the yearly General Assembly opens, World
Environment Day (5 June), United Nations Day (24 October),
Human Rights Day (10 December), and several others
reflecting the great aims of the United Nations. As a
result, youth will participate from childhood in the making
of a peaceful and better world;
6. that many
philanthropists will follow the example of Mr. Sasakawa and
will help global and peace education at the world level and
continental, national and local levels;
7. that the media who
have a major role as educators will follow the example of
Ted Turner and will inform, teach, illustrate and make
audiences participate in the building of a better world. In
particular, it is imperative that they inform the public of
the world information, achievements and constructive work of
the United Nations;
8. that the film industry
will produce noble inspiring films devoted to the great
visionaries, prophets and artisans of peace, past and
present. I dream of great films similar to that on Gandhi,
devoted to the lives of Dag Hammarskjöld and U Thant;
and Robert Schuman.
9. I dream of a
substantial progress of peace toys and applaud the recent
agreement between the Government of Sweden and toy
manufacturers of that country no longer to produce and to
sell toys of war and violence;
10. I dream of growing
numbers of international schools and international
universities in the specialized fields of the United Nations
agencies and world programs, following the example of the
World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden, of the
United Nations University in Tokyo, and of the University
for Peace in Costa Rica;
11. I pray that the
United Nations University will create branches in New York,
Geneva and Vienna to allow students to better know the work
of the United nations and of its Specialized Agencies at the
three main seats of the United nations;
12. I dream that all
universities in the world will require that students should
take a course on international organizations laboring in
their fields;
13. I dream that Unesco
will study and recommend by the year 2000 a world core
curriculum for adoption by all nations;
14. I hope that all
books, manuals and history teachings will include a chapter
on the United Nations, which is rarely the case
today;
15. I hope that all
social and political sciences will follow the example of the
exact sciences and become global. We need most urgently a
global anthropology, a global sociology, a global psychology
and a global political and administrative science (planetics
and gaiamanagement);
16. I dream that all
religious education will teach peace and non-violence,
proclaiming as the first cosmic and divine law on Earth:
Thou shalt not kill, not even in the name of a nation or a
religion;
17. I dream that each
country shall create a Ministry of Peace and an academy or
institute for peace, with local branches, in order to guide
and co-ordinate the efforts of citizens, schools, and local
institutions and associations working for peace,
non-violence, and a better world. The University for Peace
could from time to time organize international conferences
of such new peace departments.
I pay homage to my
co-laureate, Mrs. Elise Boulding for her action which has
led to the creation of the prestigious Institute for Peace
by the Government of the United States of America. May all
countries follow that example;
18. I dream of the
creation of a World Peace Service which would allow young
people from all countries to work together for peace and
humanitarian causes instead of military service;
19. I dream of the birth
of a true world literature whose best-sellers would be works
of peace and non-violence;
20. I hope that the
University for Peace will establish a global peace strategy
which would reach from outer-space to the atom, encompassing
all aspects of our planetary home, the atmosphere, the seas
and oceans, the polar caps, the continents, nations,
regions, cities and villages; and from the whole human
family to the individual, encompassing races, peoples,
cultures, religions, generations, professions, institutions,
firms, the family and all groups and associations created by
the human race to attain a greater level of happiness and
fulfillment;
21. I pray that all human
beings of this Earth become instruments of peace, thus
fulfilling the cosmic function deeply engraved in each of us
and for which we were born and allowed to live temporarily
on this beautiful planet in the vast universe and eternal
stream of time. The peace of the world is the sum-total of
the peace of all individuals.
22. I hope that the
United Nations General Assembly will proclaim a worldwide
celebration of the Year 2000, to which Unesco would
contribute its vision and projects in the fields of
education, science and culture for the next
millennium;
23. I dream that the
United Nations flag and United Nations hymn composed by
Pablo Casals will spread world wide and that 24 October,
anniversary of the birth of the United Nations, will be
celebrated in all countries as is recommended by the General
Assembly;
24. Finally, I pray that
the United States will take again their seat at Unesco and
resume their visionary and dynamic role at the United
Nations and in all Specialized Agencies of the United
Nations, so indispensable at this crucial stage of history
when world problems multiply unceasingly. We should remember
these last lines of a text which Franklin Roosevelt wrote in
his own hand on the day of his death for a speech he was to
deliver at the opening of the San Francisco Conference
convened to give birth to the United Nations from the ashes
and blood of the sixty million dead of World War
II:
This work, my friends, is
peace: more than an end of this war -- an end to the
beginning of all wars. I ask you to keep up your faith. The
only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts
of today. Let us move forward with a strong and active
faith.
1996:
May I reinforce this
prayer that the US Congress pursue the American dream to be
the cradle and foundation of a new world order, and consider
a bold, visionary strengthening of US-born United Nations,
instead of letting their minds be poisoned by the thought of
letting the UN die by withholding US financial
contributions.
The non-joining by the US
of the League of Nations was an invitation to Hitler and
Mussolini to become dictators and provoked World War II. May
America not repeat that mistake, I beg you. See what Europe
has achieved by creating the seeds of World
Union.
Do even better since you
are the land of dreams. Love and concern of the American
people for the world and humanity find their highest
expression in the United Nations. I pray God to enlighten
all Americans to that basic truth. Please listen to the
prayer of one who has suffered much during World War II and
was miraculously blessed with survival. I would be happy to
address the US Congress and all Parliaments in the world to
plead for the strengthening of the United Nations and for a
peaceful, better world.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY
ROBERT MULLER
Laureate of the Unesco Prize 1989
for Peace Education
(Download PDF)
Mr Director-General,
Dear members of my family,
Dear friends, HUMAN language
is often insufficient to express deep emo- tions and finds itself
reinforced in such circumstances by tears and internal images. When I
received your telegram, tears came to my eyes as well as an image from
my childhood: that of a young boy who from his window high up in the
house of his parents in Sarreguemines, Alsace-Lorraine, was
contemplating a border. It was a line not to be trespassed. Beyond it
lived hereditary enemies, people we were to despise and even hate. And
yet they spoke the same language and had the same names as we. And when
I lifted my eyes to the sky, I saw stars, a sun, a moon, clouds and
birds who ignored totally that border. And I dreamt that someday I
would be allowed to work for its suppression.
My family had still to suffer
a lot from that border, as I grew up: two evacuations which made us
twice refugees; World War II declared fifty years ago, today; Nazi
occupation; imprisonment; the French underground; a fate best
epitomized in the life of my grandfather who held successively five
nationalities without leaving his village of Sarralbe, which I have the
joy of seeing represented here today.
And my dream was fulfilled: I
became a servant of the United Nations and worked there all my adult
life. Other friends from Alsace-Lorraine took issue with that border
and worked for the creation of a European Community which is today a
flourishing reality. And when I received my latest passport, I had a
beautiful surprise: it has the title European Community and under it
the sub-title France. I hope that the papers of my descendants will
bear someday the title United Nations or World Community and under it
as sub-title the name of their country. And, if God grants me life, I
will make it a point to be present in Sarreguemines in 1992 or 1993 to
see the last remnants of that border dismantled.
All my life has been a
succession of dreams, often fulfilled: not to see another world war; to
see the United Nations become universal; to see the end of
colonization; to see nations work together on innumerable issues in 32
Specialized Agencies and world program- mes of the United Nations; to
witness the birth of international schools, of world universities and
of a University for Peace; to see a world core curriculum adopted in a
first few schools around the world. And since dreams engender other
dreams, it happened that one of these schools dreamt that I should be
awarded the Unesco Peace Education Prize. And here I am, in this hall,
living again the fulfilment of a dream.
Mr Director-General, humanity
must never cease to dream. Dreams are stronger than the sword. You, in
your high functions, your colleagues, the 40,000 world servants of this
planet, the 5 billion mothers, children, grown-ups and elderly must
dream very strongly and highly, taking the point of view of the
heavens, of the stars, of the sun, of the moon, of the clouds and of
the birds. And our dreams of a peaceful, weaponless, beautiful and good
world for all those admitted to live on it will come true.
I have been wondering what
kind of hommage I could render to those men and women who are the
artisans of this prize: Mr Ryoichi Sasakawa, the benefactor; the
members of the selection committee presided by Professor Sakamoto; the
kind persons who proposed my name: Janet Feldman, President of the
Friends of the University for Peace, Elvi Ruottinen, Finnish journalist
to the United Nations, and Gloria Crook, Director of the school which
bears my name in Arlington, Texas; you, Mr Director-General, who honour
us with your presence; and your colleagues, especially Wolfgang
Schwendler in Paris and Joseph Mehan in New York. And I thought that my
best hommage would be to stimulate some additional dreams regarding
education for peace. Here are those which are particularly dear to me:
1. that all schools of this
Earth will teach about the United Nations, which is the young people’s
greatest hope and will be their instrument of global action when they
are grown up;
2. that all governments which
have not yet done so, will ratify the University for Peace, this
magnificent dream being implemented in Costa Rica, a totally disarmed
heaven of peace in a region still troubled by conflict;
3. that all schools and
universities of this Earth will teach peace and non-violence and will
become schools and universities of peace;
4. that Unesco recommend to the United Nations to proclaim an International Year for Global and Peace Education;
5. that children in all
schools of the world will celebrate the international years proclaimed
by the United Nations, for instance the International Day of Peace held
on the third Tuesday of September, when the yearly General Assembly
opens; World En- vironment Day (5 June); Human Rights Day (10
December), and several others reflecting the great aims of the United
Nations. As a result, youth will participate from childhood in the
making of a peaceful and better world;
6. that many philanthropists
will follow the example of Mr Sasakawa and will help global and peace
education at the world level and continental, national and local levels;
7. that the media who have a
major role as educators will follow the example of Ted Turner and will
inform, teach, illustrate and make audiences participate in the
building of a better world. In particular, it is imperative that they
inform the public of the world information, achievements and
constructive work of the United Nations system;
8. that the film industry will
produce noble, inspiring films devoted to the great visionaries,
prophets and artisans of peace, past and present. I dream of great
films similar to that on Gandhi, devoted to the lives of Dag
Hammarskjold and U Thant;
9. I dream of a substantial
progress of peace toys and applaud the recent agreement between the
Government of Sweden and toy manufacturers of that country no longer to
produce and to sell toys of war and violence;
10. I dream of growing numbers
of international schools and international universities in the
specialized fields of the United Nations agencies and world programmes,
following the example of the World Maritime University in Malmo,
Sweden, of the United Nations University in Tokyo, and of the
University for Peace in Costa Rica;
11. I pray that the United
Nations University will create bran- ches in New York, Geneva and
Vienna to allow students to better know the work of the United Nations
and of its Specialized Agencies at the three main seats of the United
Nations;
12. I dream that all
universities in the world will require that students should take at
least a few hours of courses on international organizations labouring
in their fields;
13. I dream that Unesco will study and recommend by the year 2000 a world core curriculum for adoption by all nations;
14. I hope that all books,
manuals and history teachings include at least a final chapter on the
United Nations, which is rarely the case today;
15. I hope that all social and
political sciences will follow the example of the exact sciences and
become global. We need most urgently a global anthropology, a global
sociology, a global psychology and a global political and
administrative science;
16. I dream that all religious
education will teach peace and non-violence, proclaiming as the first
cosmic and divine law on Earth: Thou shalt not kill, not even in the
name of a nation or a religion;
17. I dream that each country
shall establish a ministry, an academy or a national institute for
peace, with local branches, in order to guide and co-ordinate the
efforts of citizens, of schools, and of local institutions and
associations working for peace and a better world. The University for
Peace could from time to time organize international conferences of
such new peace departments. I would like to pay hommage to my
co-laureate, Mrs Elise Boulding for her action which has led to the
creation of the prestigious Institute for Peace by the Government of
the United States of America. May all countries follow that example;
18. I dream of the creation of
a World Peace Service which would allow a growing number of young
people from all countries to work together for peace and humanitarian
causes instead of military service;
19. I dream of the birth of a true world literature whose best-sellers would be works of peace and non-violence;
20. I hope that the University
for Peace will establish a global peace strategy which would reach from
outer-space to the atom, encompassing all aspects of our planetary
home, the atmosphere, the seas and oceans, the polar caps, the
continents, nations, regions, cities and villages; and from the whole
human family to the indi- vidual, encompassing races, peoples,
cultures, religions, gener- ations, professions, institutions, firms,
the family and all groups and associations created by the human race to
attain a greater level of happiness and fulfilment;
21. I pray that all human
beings of this Earth become instru- ments of peace, thus fulfilling the
cosmic function deeply engraved in each of us and for which we were
born and allowed to live temporarily on this particular planet in the
vast universe and eternal stream of time. The peace of the world is the
sum-total of the peace of all individuals. As the Chinese proverb says:
when the people lead, the leaders will follow;
22. I hope that the United
Nations General Assembly will proclaim a worldwide celebration of the
Year 2000, to which Unesco would contribute its vision and projects in
the fields of education, science and culture for the next millennium;
23. I dream that the United Nations flag and United Nations hymn composed by Pablo Casals will spread world wide and that
24 October, anniversary of the
birth of the United Nations, will be celebrated in all countries as is
recommended by the General Assembly;
24. finally, I pray that the
United States will take again their seat at Unesco and resume their
visionary and dynamic role at the United Nations and in all Specialized
Agencies of the United Nations, so indispensable at this crucial stage
of history when world problems multiply unceasingly. I often remember
these last lines of a speech which Franklin Roosevelt wrote in his own
hand on the day of his death for a speech he was to deliver at the
opening of the San Francisco Conference convened to give birth to the
United Nations from the ashes and blood of the sixty million dead of
World War II: The work, my friends, is peace: more than an end of this
war-an end to the beginning of all wars. I ask you to keep up
yourfaith. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our
doubts of today. Let us move forward with a strong and active faith.
And since it is in the minds
of men that wars begin, as is underlined in Unesco’s Constitution, it
is in Unesco and in the schools of the world that an end to the
beginnings of all wars must be made.
I thank you, Mr
Director-General and all my friends for your kindness of giving an hour
of your precious lives to this beautiful ceremony in that magnificent
institution, sign of the new times which Unesco represents.
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