
21st September has been declared by the United Nations as International Day of Peace! I didn’t know it until I accidentally met the man who was responsible for making that happen! Last year, on 6th October’12, I attended a special 1-day event in central London, for Entrepreneurs! And in that event, Jeremy Gilley had a 5 minute slot to promote his `thing’ – and that turned out to be all about the International Peace Day ..and he turned out to be the ma who had campaigned for that and actually succeeded!
Wikipedia says about International Peace Day,
“Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation with the objective to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace that occurs on 21 September each year. The objective of the organisation is to foster Peace Day as “a day for wide-scale community action, and a day for UN agencies and aid organisations to safely carry out life-saving work.”
Founded in 1999 by the British documentary filmmaker and actor Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day led a successful campaign to pass UN Resolution 55/282 recognising Peace Day as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. Unanimously approved by all members States the resolution also invites organisations and individuals to commemorate the International Day of Peace through education and public awareness, and to cooperate with the United Nations in the establishment of the global ceasefire..”
I was totally bowled over by the whole idea.. (I came to the UK as a refugee 25+ years ago from Sri Lanka, after all that interracial violence.. So this sort of global grand peace initiatives affects me in the first and immediate instance.. that is even before I start thinking about all the hundreds of Wars going on around the world at any one time.. and the thousands of people being killed by it 😦

This year ..2013 will be the first time I will be fully aware of and observe International Peace Day. And am already resolved to make it as special as possible, and to share that initiative with as many friends, family and community I can. That effort started with me promoting the awareness in my websites few months ago.. But it takes a definitive step forward…with this blog post.. and the beautiful graphics below that I was just compelled to create (it’s a photo-graphic version of the `Peace One Day’ logo 🙂
Feel free to share the art work.. above.. as more people who see it and become aware…the better ..for the World! 🙂
It’s highly interesting that …it happens on 21st September.. the general day of Autumn Equinox.. a time of balancing Dark and Light..in a magical sense… so to speak.
I didn’t get to shake hands with Jeremy that day…he was very busy..very tired..and spoke very fast to cram what he had to say (on top of a short film he shared). But seeing him speak with passion and fire was enough.. and now I can share that spark with others..!
“One man can make a difference! ”
-Mani Navasothy
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