One and Half month left, looking back my 2013 with MANNAM and Hope for Peace

How was your 2013? It's 13th, November, 2013. One and half month are left. If you can choose some keywords for summarizing your year, which words will you choose? I want to pick two words, 'MANNAM' and 'Peace.' Exactly saying, there are more some sub-keywords related to them, such as 'MIYC' and 'The Peace.' 

The war in the world haven't been stopped yet. The world is still in war, and many people suffer from it. It is caused by separation and non-tolerance among different political parties, different sexes, different cultures, different nationalities, and different religions. I have heard and seen many cases that is not in peace this year, discussing with friends from all over the world in The Peace talk concert programs. Our branch MANNAM Busan North started in January, and soon 11th concert is coming. 


Doing discussions, I found that all people have hope for peace and they want peace in their life, country, family, and friends. The second part was usually discussion time and we discuss about how we make peace. Of course, depending on the topic, solutions were various, however, there was always one basic thing in all solutions. It's 'Understanding.' 


Understanding does not happen suddenly. It can be possible when we gather, discuss, and cooperate through creating a network. This year, MANNAM and other youth organizations made a network named MANNAM International Youth Coalition. One of the peace projects was the peace walk, 10km in their shoe with POP (Pledge of Peace) in April. 

In May,  All MANNAM members were also invited to participate in the event. Especially, MIYC youth representatives attended and walked together, too. It was impressive for me to see that about more than 20,000 people gathered and walked for peace together. Peace leader Mr.Lee announced the Declaration of World Peace and cry '만세! (Man-sae, a word used in Korea and China, like 'Hurruh.') Here are some parts of the declaration:

We call on the heads of state of every country to sign an international agreement - a commitment to bringing all wars to an end. We ask them to do this from a spirit of deepseated love for the people of their country. 

We call on all youth to unite in an effort to stop wars and pursue the restoration of peace by agreeing not to fight one another. For World Peace to become a reality, this is the duty of all youth, everywhere. The only way to stop the fighting and pointless, tragic deaths, is to stop fighting. Nobody can ask for anything greater than this, and know now that your efforts - the efforts of the young people of the world today in pursuit of peace - will remain as a never fading light of life for all future generations. 

Furthermore, we call on every person, every man, woman, and child in the world, to pick up the mantle of peace. In whatever way you can, we ask that you work t further the cause of world peace and restoration, making it a reality in your direct environments. 

Lastly, we call on the media to port responsibly and promote a message of peace to the world.

After walking together in this event in May, We were connected much more strongly. 
I expect the MANNAM INTL to make many great projects next year, looking forward to seeing youth people in MANNAM and all youth organizations all over the world work together. 

This year, I found hope for peace, and now I believe my hope for peace is not unrealistic one, and hope world peace to be achieved and want to witness it is realized in my life. There is no peace yet in the world, but I was and am happy to be with MANNAM, because there is hope and MANNAM made me believe it can be possible. 

All youth, Let's do peace!