MANNAM International Youth Coalition (MIYC): 10Km in Their Shoes~Pledge of Peace - Seoul, Korea

Pledge of Peace 

We, the Youth, know that we live in one world

We breathe the same air,

Tread the same earth.

We see by the light of the same bright sun,

And dream beneath the same moon.

From this day forward we will breathe the air

of a world in which Youth stand united,

rather than divided over the disagreements of our forefathers.

Together we will tread the same earth, walking along a path of peace and

understanding, towards a future of hope.

Together we will see the day dawn on which there will be an end to the wars waged by

nations but paid for in the blood of young people like ourselves.

Together we will work to make our dream - the dream of a world at peace - a reality.

We, the Youth, pledge to lay aside our differences;

to recognize and respect our common humanity, the rights that each of us share

irrespective of our nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, or other apparent differences.

We pledge to stop fighting the wars of our past

and to build new relationships, repaying all those young people who fought for our

freedom and right to stand here today.

We will redeem the value of their lives by working together to end all wars,

and to create a new world of unity, peace and freedom for all people.

The Ultimate Demand of Humankind: After MIYC Pledge of Peace Event -Shahin (Bangladesh)

  Peace is the ultimate demand of mankind. Rich-poor, Hindu-muslim-Christan-Buddhist, man- woman, black-white, who doesn’t want peace? Even a terrorist, thief, robber or a culprit wants peace in their own way, not for all but only for themselves. We, all, love peace. When people think about the peace, if he only considers himself, his own community, his own religion or his own country only then it becomes disturbance for others. 

  People from all over the world gathered in Soul grand park, Korea on 21st April, 2013 to express their unity in the demand of ultimate peace of the world. MANNAM Busan North, a part of MANNAM Volunteer Association also participated in the MIYC Pledge of Peace and Peace Walk. We started from Busan at 8:00am and reached in grand park at 12:30 pm. We MANNAM Busan North expressed our inseparable unity with the main event. Then we took part in peace rally around the grand park. It was really an amazing opportunity for us to meet so many people of different country, different culture, different community and so on, but the demand was still “a peaceful world”. We shared our feeling regarding peace, what is peace, how we can make the world peaceful. We enjoyed our journey by singing song, dancing, joking, taking photos and so on. We arrived in Busan at 11:00 and went to sleep with a dream of a peaceful and happy world where there are no discrimination, no terrorism, no war; only peace is there.  

Md. Anwarul Haque(shahin)

Bangladesh

평화는 인류의 궁극적인 요구사항입니다. 부자나 가난한자나, 힌두교-무슬림-기독교인-불교인도, 흑인이나 백인이나.. 누가 평화를 원하지 않겠습니까? 심지어는 테러리스트, 도둑, 절도범 등의 범죄자들도 모든 사람을 위해서가 아니라, 오직 그들 자신을 위해서, 그들의 방식으로 평화를 원하는 것입니다. 우리는 모두 평화를 사랑하죠. 사람들이 평화에 대해 고민할 때, 자신만을 생각하고 그 자신의 공동체를 위해 또 자신의 종교와 나라만을 위해 평화를 생각한다면, 그것은 다른 사람들을 해칠 수 있습니다. 

전 세계로부터 많은 사람들이 2013년 4월 21일 서울 대공원에 모였습니다. 그들의 세계 평화에 대한 궁극적인 요구를, 연합을 통해 표현하려고 말입니다. 만남 자원 봉사단의 한 지부인 만남 부산 북부도 이 평화 서약 및 평화를 위한 걷기에 동참했습니다. 우리는 부산에서 8시에 출발해서 대공원에 12시 반에 닿았습니다. 우리 만남 부산 북부지부는 우리의 똘똘 뭉친 연합을 메인 오프닝 행사와 함께 보여주었죠. 그리고 서울 대공원 주위를 도는 평화 행진에 동참했지요. 이 행사는 우리에게 많은 다른 나라, 다른 문화, 다른 공동체 등에서 온 사람들을 만날 수 있는 멋진 기회였습니다. 그러나 궁극적인 목적은 역시 '평화로운 세계'였습니다. 우리는 우리의 평화에 대한 느낌-평화란 무엇인가, 어떻게 세계를 평화롭게 할 것인가-을 나누었습니다. 노래하면서, 춤추면서, 재미있는 이야기를 하고, 사진을 찍으면서 여행을 즐겼습니다. 그리고 부산에는 11시에 들어왔고, 차별도, 테러도, 전쟁도 없고 오직 평화만 있는, 평화롭고 행복한 세계의 꿈을 꾸며 잠에 들었답니다. :))

The Box of 'LIKES' by MANNAM The PEACE #1. INDIGO SOWON

The first one I picked from the box of 'Likes' is INDIGO SOWON in Namcheon, Busan. Most readers don't know well, but the reason that I chose this is Indigo Sowon gave me fresh ideas and introduced many books to help make The PEACE.

Indigo Sowon is a nonprofit humanities bookstore for youth founded by Korean human right activist, Aram Hur. The first time that I met Indigo was when they held 'Indigo Youth Book Fair 2010.' Its poster has one elephant, and the title was '가치를 다시 묻다 (Re-evaluation of Values.)'  It caught my eyes and I met many valuable books and activists for human values.

Since then, I have subscribed its newsletter and often visited the homepage or the bookstore in Namcheon. There are many activities and useful sources for humanities and youth. Especially, many books of humanities that we cannot discover when just dropping by usual bookstores. Of course, most of books are in Korean language, so I am sorry for it.

Before when I held the 1st MANNAM The PEACE talk concert, I scrapped news and read other books related to peace movements and at that time, lists of books on Indigo website helped me a lot and I got inspiration from them. One of them is <Enough Blood Shed: 101 Soluntion to Violence, Terror, and War> of Mary-Wynne Ashford and Guy Dauncey. Mary-Wynne Ashford came to Busan for the 2nd UN Youth Peace Camp co-hosted by the Commemorative Organization for World Peace and Indigo Sowon. She was a guest speaker and 220 teenagers participated in the symposium. I missed her speech but bought her book and it really helped me and team members a lot. Next week, I will introduce about her book.

Indigo Sowon has offered the place where youth can share their ideas freely.

They do not learn and study certain subjects according to curriculum, instead,

 they are discussing human, war, terror, peace, environment, poverty, equality, education, etc. and express their ideal and ideas. Through it, they even publish their magazine 'INDIGO+ing' not just learning and accepting the established knowledge. And since 2010, 'INDIGO', the international version of 'INDIGO+ing' written in English has been published. The magazine is published once every two months.

I was surprised to see many youth think about human seriously and discuss about issues which we face today on the earth. And thank Indigo Sowon for making the place where we re-discover books which are hidden but valuable to read, encouraging Korean youth to think about human values, and doing many conferences and symposiums for teenagers. People who run Indigo Sowon, including Aram Hur, they might know that youth have power to make change the society and move world. Their thinking is more flexible than adults.

When preparing the 2nd The PEACE talk concert, Rodrigo talked about the importance of education for youth. He had a chance to join the program which connects international students in universities with elementary or middle schools, and makes them teach their culture or other worldwide issue to children. He saw many students show open mind to any culture and they are active to understand the cultural differences. Then, he said he believes education is very important to make world peace.

In that point, Indigo Sowon, the special humanities bookstore for youth, are doing really great things to make world more beautiful to live together and they are establishing world peace. After World Peace Festival, MANNAM formed networks with many international youth organizations. And this year, MANNAM initiated MIYC with international youth organizations, dreaming great projects and programs with many international youth organizations. When designing programs, Indigo Sowon's ideas or past events also can help us set up, I think. :) One thing that I want more is that if there are more active programs beyond just discussion, it will be definitely great!

And all readers who live in Korea or has a chance to visit Busan, Korea! I recommend to visit Indigo Sowon or visit their website (it's linked their 2010 youth book fair Eng. version)
If you get off Namcheon subway station and go upstairs through Exit #1, you can find Indigo bookstore in 5 minitues walk. If you get lost, contact to me, haha :) Oh, plus, in front of Indigo, there is a cafeteria called Eco-topia, where you can get fresh foods of which ingredients are eco-friendly. And you can't meet Indigo on Monday like a public library or museum!