First alliance of civilizations forum in madrid
15-16 January 2008
Author Paulo Coelho, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, Queen Noor of Jordan, Al Jazeera anchor Riz Khan, Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson are among the public figures coming to Madrid on January 15-16 to find new ways to bridge the growing divide between nations and cultures worldwide, and to establish new partnerships to promote global understanding.
Hosted by the government of Spain, the Alliance of Civilizations Forum will convene political leaders, media heads, grassroots and civil society leaders, corporate and film industry executives, and religious figures.
The Forum will be opened by the President of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and President Jorge Sampaio, High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations.
The Forum will feature announcements of high-profile initiatives, including major projects aimed at promoting understanding among cultures in the areas of media and youth. Other commitments and partnerships involving governments and multilateral organizations will be announced at the Forum.
OBJECTIVES OF THE ALLIANCE
Today’s globalised world has given rise to an increasingly high level of contacts between different cultures and civilizations. However, sometimes the greater diversity of our societies is perceived more as a threat than as an opportunity. Managing coexistence between cultures, both inside and outside of our borders, is going to be a challenge at the top of the international agenda in the coming decades.
With this aim, the Alliance of Civilizations was born. The initiative was presented by the President of the Government of Spain in September 2004, during the 59th United National General Assembly. Later, the Prime Minister of Turkey joined the initiative as co-sponsor. Accepted formally by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 14 July 2005, the Alliance has been, since then, an initiative of the Secretary-General.
This initiative has received the unanimous backing of the UN member States, as noted in the Final Document of the 2005 World Summit. Thus, the Alliance of Civilizations is a part of the Spanish Government’s commitment to efficient multilateralism and strengthening the role of the United Nations in today’s world.
In very little time, the Alliance has become consolidated as a useful instrument in the effort to correct the reciprocal negative perceptions that seem to exist between the Western world and the Arab-Islamic world, an atmosphere that has been exploited and aggravated by extremists from all societies. This is why there was a need to form a wide-ranging coalition to counteract this trend towards extremism and to avoid greater deterioration in the relationships between societies. Governments have a duty to not stand by passively as this gap widens. It is necessary to highlight our shared values and build, on this basis, common lines of action in a series of areas for political action.
The Alliance of Civilizations aims to create a global political space to combat lack of communication and mutual understanding.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Hello I am a newbie and wanted to say hello and check out this forum
http://www.bigskates.com
June 30th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Hi All. Nice forum. Happy to be here and hope to be more involved. Thanks, Mickael
June 30th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
My last anime list was seriously out of style and so I’ve decided to go back and redo - this time listing only movies,
and including ten at that. Here it is, my top ten favorite anime movies of all time!
I may be alone in choosing this one to start the list at but I’ll be darned if The Cat Returns isn’t one of the quirkiest,
most lighthearted, not to mention pure fun of Studio Ghibli’s releases. The storyline follows the adventure of a
young girl named Haru as she is being forced to marry a young cat prince in the Kingdom of Cats as reward for
saving her soon-to-be husband’s life. Haru isn’t exactly a blushing bride and with the help of the mild mannered
animate cat doll known as the Baron she sets out to escape the clutches of the twisted Cat King.
This one is more for the kids, but there’s plenty for adults to enjoy too.
Best anime
Best MP3
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Riva Anime Network
Now I am no expert when it comes to Anime films, and I don’t profess that I have seen as many as some movie
fans, but I know what I like. Back when I started college, I had a friend who was big-time into the animated films
coming out of Japan, and it slowly got my interested in ones that had strong stories. I mean without the stories,
its just another cartoon right? Well to be sure, I know what I like, but it doesn’t mean that everyone likes the same
ones, and after all, this is my own personal list. Some of these choices may not even make a
top 100 list of a die-hard Anime Fan. But, for me, they are what I think are the top 10 Anime Films of All Time.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Good day to all
July 30th, 2008 at 12:10 am
new to the forums
glad to be a member… just wanting to say hi
whats up everyone?
August 1st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I’ve recently joined and wanted to introduce myself
August 24th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Is this gonna end someday??
October 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Hi, everybody!
I think, that this is a great forum. Very intresting and useful.
But I can’t find the search function, cause I want faster find the topics that could be intresting for me to express my opinion…
Please help me with search function on this forum!
October 21st, 2008 at 8:46 am
Hello www.funci.org!
this or no this ?
October 27th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Hi, I think I like this place…
November 4th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Where you are going to meet new year?
November 5th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Have you seen how they write on roses ? like here speaking roses
November 11th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Well, thought it was time to introduce myself, been reading so much about this place I thought best to signup and participate and helpout if I can.
So, hello and I hope to learn and help others out… Peace.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
If the report about global changes in the world had been written by a group of scientists and published by political analysts, it would have become something unimportant. Everything would seem to be obvious in the report and it would have no ground-breaking statements that could change the world. However, when it is the US intelligence community that pens a text about trivial and obvious trends, everything is portrayed to become a sensational discovery. The US intelligence seems to be living in the world of illusions. Our congratulations to the new president on having such assistants.
The US National Intelligence Council (NIC), the body that is responsible for short-term and long-term strategic planning, prepared a report titled “Global Trends 2025.” The council makes such reports to the US administration once in five years.
The reports remind US administration what may happen in the world if it does not run certain policies. The main goal of the latest report is to inform President-elect Barack Obama of the factors that will affect world affairs in the future. The document particularly warns Obama of the risks which may appear in the transition to the new system during the forthcoming 20 years.
Thomas Fingar, the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, believes that there is an opportunity to avoid the harmful consequences of the transition period. Fingar believes that the USA may have a better world at its disposal by 2025 if the US administration pays attention to those problems and takes certain efforts to solve them.
It is worthy of note that these “Global Trends” reports from NIC are known for their mistakes. In “Trends 2010,” “Trends 2015” and “Trends 2020” intelligence experts predicted something absolutely contrary to their current points of view. They particularly envisaged an increasing role of the European Union and the stable growth of Western economies on the level of approximately 2 percent a year. It is supposed to happen in 2010.
The NIC has to do a very ungrateful job. It is supposed to coordinate and summarize analytical materials from all intelligence centers of the United States – the CIA, the political intelligence of the State Department, the army intelligence, the navy intelligence, the Treasury intelligence, etc. The report says that the USA will continue to lose its international influence in the world during the first quarter of the current century. It will keep its superpower status although the erstwhile predominance will be lost. The same fate is in store for the US dollar.
The report said that the current financial crisis is only the first stage of the changing global world order. The role of the US dollar as the fundamental global currency will reduce. Brazil, India and China will fill the gap that the USA will make for them. The three countries may even take measures to join their efforts. Analysts wrote that Russia, India and China hold best chances to become world’s most influential superpowers by 2025.
The multipolar world will emerge, and the Western models of economic liberalism and democracy will lose their appeal entirely. The European Union will also lose its influence. Europe will not be able to overcome its energy dependence by 2025. About 57 percent of global gas reserves in 2025 will be concentrated in Russia, Iraq and Qatar.
Many current oil makers will lose their current positions too. Six countries will control almost 40 percent of the global oil output: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
The report pays special attention to the danger of the nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Iran’s decisions regarding its nuclear program may push several regional powers to taking more efforts on the way to building their own nukes. More importantly, the appearance of nuclear arms in the Middle East will not result in the establishment of the containment system, similar to that during the Cold War era. Quite on the contrary, the nukes will let the countries of the region continue their military and terrorist operations with the use of conventional arms.
A possible use of nuclear weapons during the upcoming 15 or 20 years will strike a severe blow on the international system, and the world will immediately face enormous humanitarian, economic and political consequences, the authors of the report wrote. A nuclear threat may lead to serious geopolitical changes when non-nuclear countries will be forced to ally with nuclear powers.
The “Global Trends 2025” report shows that the United States is losing its international role and proves to be unable to build normal relations with other countries. In general, the USA cannot find its place in the changing world.
Vladimir Anokhin from russian newspaper “pravda”
go bugs……
November 27th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Mike Mossberg, I know you reading this forum, please contact me, because I can’t find your contact details.
November 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Hi. I repeatedly scan this forum. This is the oldest culture unqualified to ask a ridiculous.
How multifarious in this forum are references progressive behind, disingenuous users?
Can I depute all the advice that there is?
December 26th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I just started today and I’d like to meet some new friends!!!!
August 7th, 2009 at 5:43 am
hello
every body, iam hashim from east africa,
but i live asian now, i get request from one of the islamic school in zanzibar island need help to repair the school.
so every one want to donate,money, tools, books, pens, and equipment of study,are welcome ,and join with us ,for more information.contact with me hashimarts@yahoo.co.uk
thank you every one,
god bless all