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| Subj: Balkan Tinderbox I am a frequent viewer of History channel and generaly recommend the program to my friends and encourage my children to learn from it. I may differ in some interpretations and opinions,but rarely had a cause to write to you. What disturbed me was the above presentation.Filled with inaccuracies to the point that I believe it is blatant disregard for journalism and honesty in reporting.I am obviously not a Serb and may have somewhat less objective view ,but if you cared to check your references you will find a barrel of malicious propaganda. How could you let this happen?! The list of "errors" is too long to go over,they are continuous. So, I am not only distressed with this, but will be very reluctant in future spend my time with "H", let alone recommend it. V.Bach Dear Vjera, Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding programming on The History Channel. We take particular pride in our programming and were disappointed to learn that you were unhappy with the content of Balkan Tinderbox. All of our programming is the result of a very deliberate and defined process. Our research department is continuously studying what interests our viewers and our current programming is a direct result of their findings. While we shall take your comments into consideration, The History Channel is very proud of its reputation as a responsible programmer of historical documentaries, films and specials; as such, we stand by our decision to telecast this program. We appreciate your feedback on History Channel programming. Cordially, Viewer Relations A&E Networks www.AandE.com www.HistoryChannel.com www.Biography.com www.historyinternational.com ----------------------------- ---------- To: Sports@msnbc.com 16 Feb 2002 Subject: Olympics Dear Sir, Who ever decided where and when to put the commercials during the presentation of countries at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics ought to have his head examined! It was a monumental mistake, as NBC ought to realize that these countries, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Turkey and several others were badly slighted by such cavalier action. Every country participating in the Olympics has the right to be acknowledged. It should not be too difficult to show the commercials, both, before the start of the ceremony and afterward, but never in between the parade. Cutting out any country is inexcusable. I hope this is the last time we see such unfairness. Sincerely, but very annoyed, Hilda Maria Foley Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Weekend: space: property: THE NEW TUSCANY?: Like it or loathe it, British homebuyers have a hunger to discover uncharted territory. Faith Glasgow talks to two women blazing a trail in Dubrovnik The Guardian - United Kingdom; Mar 9, 2002 BY FAITH GLASGOW Maria Bennett reckons on a door-to-door journey of about four hours to her holiday home. She nips off for long weekends or the occasional week-long break. Last year, she made the trip six times. But this is no cottage in Dorset, no Normandy gite or Algarve villa; it's an 11th-century convent in Dubrovnik, Croatia. To be more precise, Bennett owns a small flat within the convent walls, in the heart of the medieval Old Town. "When communism came to Yugoslavia, a lot of church property was confiscated and used for housing," she explains. That's part of the charm if you're an enterprising romantic, as Bennett, a 34-year-old financial controller, undoubtedly is. She stumbled upon Dubrovnik while visiting friends in Split, the Croatian port - and fell in love with it. "It's like living in a castle," she says. "I wanted to be in the Old Town because I love the atmosphere - the smell of clean laundry, the kids playing on the steps." Her two-bedroom flat is about 50 sq m, and cost pounds 25,000 three years ago. Most properties are sold through newspaper adverts, but she bought through an estate agent - a new and so far unregulated breed that has sprung up since the break-up of Yugoslavia. "To begin with, he tried to sell me his aunt's property and pay the money into a foreign bank account, but once I had a lawyer on board he was fine and showed me genuine properties." Most of the places he took her to see were in the new area by the beach. He found it hard to understand why she wanted to look in the Old Town, where Dubrovnik's older and poorer inhabitants tend to live, and most of the buildings are pretty run down. The flat she finally bought needed pounds 5,000 worth of refurbishment. When Bennett came to look for reliable builders to renovate it, however, she was almost defeated by the inflationary effects of the language barrier. "Workmen would multiply the price by two or three times," she recalls. "I spent 18 months looking for workmen - and that was with Croatian friends to help me. I nearly gave up and sold the flat again, but in the end I found someone through a new local friend I made - a very good man who ran a little team and managed the project in my absence." Language hurdles are shrinking, says Bennett, as many younger Croatians now speak English and might also know some German or Italian. "I always had a friend to help with translation in business meetings, which made things simpler; but it would be easy enough to find a translator." She is now learning Croatian. Is she concerned about a resurgence of political instability? Of course it's a risk, she replies, but Croatia is moving towards EU membership and an element of insecurity is built into property prices. "I only bought what I could afford to lose," she says. "There's no crime here - you pass people in the street at 2am and they just say good evening. I've never lived anywhere else where there wasn't some level of fear. And as a single woman, I have had no hassle from men compared with places like Turkey. The socialist heritage has ensured that women are generally respected as equals." For Bennett, Dubrovnik's culture and historical wealth is another major attraction, but the cramped confines of the Old Town certainly won't suit everyone. Most foreign holiday home buyers - mainly Germans and East Europeans so far - head for the coast. Even in its socialist years, the former Yugoslavian coastline was a popular tourist destination, with up to 10 million holidaymakers a year descending on its beaches and sailing around the myriad little islands sprinkled across the Adriatic. The ethnic conflict of the 1990s put paid to all that, but foreign buyers are creeping back. Frances Gard, a business adviser and keen sailor living in Bristol, intends to be among them in the coming months. "I don't want to buy anywhere that's full of Brits," she says. "I have been to Croatia and enjoyed it, and I made several friends there who said they'll help me when I do buy." Gard is planning to release equity on her UK mortgage to pay for a property, and hopes to cover the additional mortgage costs by renting out her holiday home through her sailing friends. She expects to pay somewhere between pounds 10,000 and pounds 50,000 for a coastal property: "I don't know yet how much I'll have to spend, so I'll get whatever I can afford." For information on buying in Croatia, contact the Croatian Embassy on 020-7387 1790. A list of recommended property lawyers can be obtained from the Consular Department in Zagreb. British Airways flights to Dubrovnik cost pounds 180. All Material Subject to Copyright Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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Hrvatski telekom complete phone directory where you can search by name, star of name, any word in name, type of business or phone number in English, Croatian Telefonski Imenik Croatia Telephone Directory. Search for people and businesses, or reverse search (search by phone number). in Croatian, English, German VIP onlinewhite pages, and mobile network in Croatian Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Op-ed Please do not send messages like "why did you put this letter up on the web". You have to be able to read between the lines. The reason is to know. If you know you can change it and if you don't you cannot. Right or wrong. Although I am tempted to send more letters on this subject, I still focus on Croatia. We have been focused on other things for too long. nb B92 journalists in act of solidarity with Feral Tribune BELGRADE, Monday ñ Journalists from Belgradeís Radio Television B92 have made a donation of 1,000 Euros to Split weekly Feral Tribune following their having been fined 200,000 Croatian kunas and the blocking of their bank accounts. B92 sees this as an obvious attempt to crush critical opinion in Croatia and calls on other broadcasters and publishers to join institutions fighting for the freedom of speech in this solidarity action. For societies on their way out of totalitarianism, the status of media is the most obvious test for democracy. The status of media in all post-war societies of the former Yugoslavia is proportionate to the quality of change and democratisation. In Kosovo, international control has been established over the most influential broadcaster: Radio Television Kosovo. This had the unfortunate result of shelving the development of independent media. I recently had the opportunity to see the inadequate conditions under which Kohavision TV is operating, two years after the bombing. Independent media have not even begun to evolve in Montenegro, having fallen into the trap of fighting for national independence, which has frequently taken priority over the professional development and independence of the media. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the international experiment with OBN TV has failed and this territory is in a constantly experimental phase with a negative attitude to independent media, which are kept at a disadvantage with respect to state media. In Serbia, no single piece of legislation applying to the media field has been adopted. Instead, a moratorium on frequency distribution was introduced, which provided for protÈgÈs of the Milosevic regime to keep their privileges by relying on the laws of the market. It is more than obvious that these companies have close ties to the new authorities. The murders of publisher Slavko Curuvija and journalist Milan Pantic have not been solved. NIN editor Stevan Niksic has been sentenced to five yearsí imprisonment. The fact that media no longer face astronomical fines has unfortunately not influenced their legal security and status. A lack of tolerance for independent media and dissident opinion is also part of the continuity with the former authorities in Croatia. I have no doubt that Feral Tribune is a stumbling block for any authorities because of the high moral standards set by journalists and editors. The inability to establish a process of facing our own past imposes the need for the independent media to continue their role as a public service, because no real public service media exist. Not only is this in direct opposition to the interests of the public, but the post-war governments, consisting mainly of broad coalitions often with contradictory programs, are thus the direct successors of wartime governments, nationalist, chauvinist and frequently criminal. The refusal to critically consider the recent past and to establish the truth about crimes and responsibility for them is a common feature of these governments. The principle of communicating vessels still works today, just as in the time when Tudjman and Milosevic would occasionally help each other out by drawing attention away in crisis situations. Three Croats not delivered to the Hague Tribunal are an excellent excuse for not delivering five Serbs. Ignoring cooperation with the Tribunal in Bosnia works directly against legislation on cooperation in Serbia. The fact that there are no trials in local courts in Serbia slows down trials in Croatian courts and makes them meaningless. The same applies to independent media. The lack of resolve to really free the media space in Croatia hinders this process in other parts of South-East Europe and vice versa. The former political domination of the media will be replaced by the domination of media moguls. Strong independent media are an obstacle because they insist on questioning democracy in societies which control truth and critical consciousness. These new threats will be difficult to oppose, but we can make it a challenge for all of us. Now more than ever it is necessary to unite the forces in the region because a situation such as that in which Feral Tribune now finds itself could await any one of us tomorrow. The international community too must learn a less from cases such as this. The international community must not make compromises with governments in the region for short-term interests in the matter of the stateís attitude to independent critical voices. Every compromise costs us dearly because it results in the crushing of criticism, the slowing down of the democratisation process and prevents the public from prospering. Veran Matic Editor in Chief, RTV B92 Belgrade via Danny Schechter Executive Editor Mediachannel.org http://www.mediachannel.org Executive Producer, Globalvision.Inc 1600 Broadway, #700 NY NY 10019 USA Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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Op-ed Dear Hilda, The letter you wrote is just outstanding. May I suggest that all of us send a copy of it via e-mail to some of the decision makers in Congress, particularly members of the House Committee on International Relations and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.Below are two easy-to-use Web sites for sending e-mails to members of these two committees: House Committee on International Relations: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/commpage.cgi?committee=hinternat Just click on the link that says: "Mail all 16 Committee Members who have email" Senate Committee on Foreign Relations: Just click on the link that says: "Mail all 9 Committee Members who have email" Also, the Jonathan Levy article appeared on the Web site "Counterpunch": The reader feedback e-mail there is: Comments should be addressed to the editors, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. Take care, Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=17860 ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Cardinal Kuharic, "Rock of Croatia," Dies Symbol of Resistance to Communism, and of Peace in Fratricidal War VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, archbishop emeritus of Zagreb, died this morning in the archdiocesan palace where he resided. He was 82. According to an announcement by Archbishop Giulio Einaudi, the apostolic nuncio in Croatia, the cardinal died of cardiac arrest, although he had been ill for quite some time. On hearing the news, John Paul II sent a telegram to Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, in which he expressed his "sorrow for the death of this dear and worthy pastor, who knew how to serve generously, wisely and loyally the people of God entrusted to his pastoral care." The Holy Father recalled that "both during the period of the Communist regime as well as during the recent and difficult period of national history," Cardinal Kuharic "committed himself with all his energies to the service of the defense of the liberty and dignity of the Croatian people, combining gentle charity with the authoritative firmness of the pastor responsible for his flock." "A man totally dedicated to the cause of the Gospel, he gave consistent witness of Christ, tirelessly infusing confidence and courage in the faithful during the harsh trials to which they were subjected in Croatian land," the Pontiff concluded. Franjo Kuharic was born April 15, 1919, in the village of Pribic. He was ordained a priest in 1945 by then Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac. Paul VI named Kuharic auxiliary bishop of Zagreb in 1964. He was promoted to archbishop in 1970, succeeding Cardinal Franjo Seper, who was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. John Paul II made Archbishop Kuharic a cardinal in 1983. "The rock of Croatia," as he was known, was president of the Yugoslavian bishops´ conference for three terms. He was archbishop of Zagreb until July 5, 1997. In a letter sent to Archbishop Bozanic, Croatian President Stipe Mesic paid homage to the cardinal´s work during the 1991-1995 war between Serbs and Croats. "He preached peace, reconciliation and rejected every spirit of vengeance and crime, guided by evangelical principles and the values of justice and liberty," the president stated. Cardinal Kuharic´s funeral will be held Thursday morning in Zagreb´s cathedral, where he will be buried. With his death, the College of Cardinals now has 177 members, including 129 electors under age 80. POGREBNI OBREDI ZA KARDINALA KUHARICA ZAGREB, 12. ozujka (Hina) - Vjernici i postovatelji kardinala Kuharica mogu se pomoliti i od njega oprostiti do sutra u 17 sati u kapeli svetoga Stjepana u Nadbiskupskom dvoru u Zagrebu, gdje je izlozeno njegovo tijelo, izvijestio je Odbor za pokop. Nakon toga uslijedit ce misa u zagrebackoj katedrali koju ce predvoditi kardinal Vinko Puljic, nadbiskup vrhbosanski, uz sudjelovanje hrvatskih nadbiskupa i biskupa, crkvenih uglednika iz inozemstva, kanonika, prebendara, svecenika i redovnika zagrebacke nadbiskupije. U cetvrtak, 14. ozujka, u 8,30 sati tijelo pokojnoga kardinala bit ce izneseno iz kapele na trg ispred katedrale, gdje ce lijes s posmrtnim ostacima biti izlozen ispred oltara na kojem ce se sluziti misa zadusnica. Obred prijenosa kardinalova tijela predvodit ce pomocni biskup zagrebacki msgr. Josip Mrzljak, uz sudjelovanje kanonika, prebendara i bogoslova. U 11 sati pocet ce misa zadusnica na trgu ispred katedrale koju ce predvoditi izaslanik Svetoga Oca kardinal Joseph Tomko uz sudjelovanje nadbiskupa, biskupa, svecenika i vjernika. Poslije mise na kojoj se ocekuje nekoliko desetaka tisuca vjernika, a koju ce izravno prenositi Hrvatska televizija, nakon oprostajnog govora Josipa Bozanica, nadbiskupa zagrebackog i predsjednika Hrvatske biskupske konferencije, pokojnikovo ce se tijelo unijeti u katedralu i poloziti u grobnicu zagrebackih nadbiskupa i biskupa koja se nalazi iza glavnoga oltara u zagrebackoj katedrali. Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Yoga classes are being held at the Croatian Center every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Classes are free. Classes will improve energy and vitality and: improve concentration freedom from stress and exhaustion improve physical health lower blood pressure We ask that when you come, to please remove your shoes and enter quietly. Respect the excersizes. Our excersizes are for everyone regardless of age or physical state. It is best not to eat 2 hours prior to the excersizes (if you are hungry, something light like fruit is ok) Never excersize if your are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If you take medication consult your physician. Dress comfortably (natural fabrics) or purchase our unifroms for $50. Don't give up! When you begin to add discipline in your life, your body will certainly resist (the battle of old habits). For more information contact Mirna Sugar the instructor at (312)320-9340 or (773)561-7444. Please come 15 minutes before for warmup excersizes. CroNetwork: The Croatian-American Organization for Young Professionals. Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| An American in Vukovar: "Harrison's Flowers" by Elie Chouraqui With this movie, which has now been released, the French film director Elie Chouraqui is presenting the first feature film with a plot unfolding on the background of the war which engulfed Croatia in 1991, and more particularly in the environs of Vukovar which was taken by the Serbian army and militias after a terrible siege that had lasted for three months. Although this is fiction, the film director has nevertheless managed to reconstitute the war scenes with gripping realism. An informed public will no doubt recognize the imposing documentary and reconstructive work that would have been needed in the making of the movie. In the fall of 1991, at the beginning of Serbian aggression on Croatia, Harrison Lloyd (played by David Strathairn), an American photographer employed by Newsweek, disappears in the environs of Vukovar, leaving behind him two children and his wife Sarah (Andie MacDowell) who refuses to believe that he is dead. She flies to Austria, rents a car, crosses the frontier and joins a groups of press photographers who are covering the conflict, among them Kyle (Adrian Brody), a friend of her husband's. Yeager Pollock (Elias Koteas), another colleague, soon joins them. Together, passing through all kinds of hardship, they visit the ruins of the Croatian martyr city that had been besieged, pounded, and soon invaded by the Belgrade army and Serbian militias. That is the stage setting. It is on this background that Chouraquie weaves his story, in which he brilliantly depicts the difficult profession of war correspondent. Concerning his choice of the war in Croatia, he explains: "Indeed, I took the example of Vukovar to show the hysterical folly of man. (...) In 1991, Vukovar was the first European city bombed out of existence since World War II. The Serbs pounded it for 80 days. They were obstinate in razing this 17th century city, so that the Croatian architectural genius would disappear from the face of the earth. The Serbs indulged in summary executions, in multiple atrocities, in extermination by grenades, in killing the wounded in the hospital. Everything shown in the movie appears in the report of the United Nations (...)". And in effect, the meticulousness that the film director shows in his effort to reconstitute faithfully the apocalyptic atmosphere reigning in the "Croatian Stalingrad" is truly disconcerting. Harrison's Flowers is nevertheless fiction, as its creator rightly points out. Those who were hoping finally to see on the screen the epic of the famous "battle of Vukovar" will be disappointed. There is no trace of the heroic and by now legendary resistance of a small group of some thousand men crushed under the bombs, who succeeded, contrary to all expectations, to keep at bay an enemy that was vastly over equipped and numerically far superior. Certainly the script, already excellent, would without doubt have been even better for it. There are however moments where the director makes use of some historical references, albeit secondary ones, with precision and very realistically. Thus he has us experience again the capturing of the sadly famous Vukovar hospital by the Serbs, but without showing the deadly fate that was awaiting its two hundred wounded who later got buried some distance away, in the mass grave at Ovcara. On the other hand, while the fact that the film director deliberately chose to give the rank of characters only to the Western reporters undoubtedly serves to maintain a certain distance from the conflict, it nevertheless affords a better grasp of it a posteriori. The suggested identification with the main character, forcefully played by Andie MacDowell, is only made easier that way. Paradoxically, the rawness and the astounding realism of the war scenes are probably going to surprise the Western public, which generally remembers from the "ex-Yugoslav" war only the siege of Sarajevo, to which may have been recently added the NATO intervention in Kosovo. But the harshness of certain scenes reminds us in a brutal fashion, to what an extent the violence of the Serbian military campaign in Croatia, which took place already ten years ago, should not be considered as a simple foretaste of the Bosnian conflict, although the media did not pay as much attention to it. Still, some stereotypes seem to be tenacious. Certain commentators, for whom the movie apparently did not really clarify things, even presented it as taking place in Bosnia, or even Serbia... Thus we were able to read recently, from under the circumspect pen of a movie critic, that Chouraqui erred on the side of excess, since, according to this critic, the war in Croatia "never reached" the intensity shown in the movie. When one knows that Vukovar, after only three months of shelling, remains the city where destruction has reached a degree unequaled in the entire region, one should have one's doubts about this. Beyond its undeniable esthetic qualities, the great merit of Harrison's Flowers is perhaps precisely its success in mixing adroitly the fiction and the realism, where documentary endeavor advantageously provides substance for an original scenario loosely inspired by Isabel Ellsen's novel The Devil Prevails. While highlighting the risks that war correspondents face daily, Elie Chouraqui also chooses to remind us of the exorbitant price that a nation had to pay, at the dawn of the third millennium, and in the heart of Europe, in order to defend such legitimate and fundamental rights as independence and democracy. Translated from the French by Ivana Jeric and submitted by Hilda Foley. Op-ed Andie MacDowell just promoted the film on David Letterman show tonight (March 12, 2002) nb Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| UN Global Compact & Roots of Peace United Nations Event New York City, New York May 7, 2002 BACKGROUND—Not since the death of Princess Diana Spencer has the media devoted such significant coverage to the issue of landmines. As the public is now learning about the scourge of landmines in Afghanistan, they are also recognizing that landmines are a global problem, where an estimated 80 million landmines are in 80 countries. Because Roots of Peace works on the full circle of demining, replanting and rebuilding sustainable communities, the organization’s mission will resonate with a public eager to offer a modern “Marshall” plan to countries like Afghanistan. Therefore, Roots of Peace has embarked upon a Demining Campaign to raise one million dollars for the demining of the once rich agricultural lands of the Shomali Valley, 30 minutes north of Kabul. Roots of Peace has successfully demined over 200 acres of agricultural land in Croatia—returning “Mines to Vines” by replacing the scourge of landmines with the nectar of grapes—turning killing fields into productive vineyards symbolizing “blood to wine”. Now, Roots of Peace aims to expand our program to the vineyards of Afghanistan, where the grapes will not be fermented with respect to the Muslim culture. Proud Afghan farmers claim there were once 26 varietals of delicious grapes, which created economic viability for local communities as they exported their product to Pakistan and India. Roots of Peace was selected by the UN Global Compact as a model project for creating “Public-Private Partnerships in Zones of Conflict”. Our case study will be presented at the United Nations in April 2002 featuring the grapes, olive trees, marichino cherries, and other agricultural fruits of the earth which now grow on former minefields. These demonstrated efforts truly embody the words etched in stone on Isaiah’s Wall at the United Nations converting “swords to plowshare” by turning “mines to vines”. Ultimately, Roots of Peace will plant rice in Cambodia, coffee in Angola, cashews in Mozambique and productively treat the mine-affected lands around the world. Roots of Peace has joined the US Department of State on two missions to Croatia in January 2000 and May 2000 to see the devastation caused by an estimated 1.2 million landmines silently poised in 14 out of 21 counties in this scenic Adriatic country. Through the support of the California wine industry, Silicon Valley, Digitas, Ruder Finn, Rotary Clubs, and other public-private partnerships, we have successfully demined four Croatian villages through matching funds from the International Trust Fund in Slovenia. “Mines to Vines” EVENT May 7, 2002 11 o’clock --ROOTS OF PEACE GARDEN DEDICATION—ISAIAH’S WALL The New York City Parks Commissioner of Manhattan, Mr. William Castro, will join UN officials, US government officials, Ambassadors from Mine Affected countries, corporate leaders, NGO’s and international media for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony unveiling the Roots of Peace Garden symbolizing our global effort to remove the deadly “seeds of destruction” caused by landmines and replace them with the “seeds of hope”. This UN motto calling upon the world to convert “swords to plowshares” is proudly placed beneath an unmaintained, vacant parcel of soil with dead, unwatered plants. This is a wall of opportunity, and Roots of Peace is proud to be actively working with the Office of the Secretary-General and the NYC Parks Commissioner/Manhattan to create a viable garden of hope featuring the American Beauty rose, Peace rose, English rose (in honor of the late Princess Diana and her efforts to remove landmines), black Iris of Jordan (in honor of Her Majesty Queen Noor and her leadership in landmine removal), jasmine (Afghanistan), lavendar (Croatia), and, of course, vineyards inspired by our Mines to Vines initiative. This garden is poised to inspire the world to plant the roots of peace, by returning demined land to productive agricultural use—swords to plowshares. From the productive soil of New York City, we hope this Roots of Peace garden will inspire global citizens to remove the deadly seeds of terror from our planet. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will feature red tape from a minefield surrounding the Roots of Peace Garden, and our partner HALO Trust will provide “Landmine Warning” signs featuring various languages around the world—Spanish, Croatian, Arabic, Asian, Russian, English, African, etc. Rather than a traditional velvet ribbon cutting ceremony, the red landmine tape will visually symbolize our efforts to convert swords to plowshares by replacing the seeds of destruction cause by landmines with the seeds of hope. An ecumenical blessing of the Roots of Peace Garden will be arranged, along with inspiring words from the mayor and other distinguished guests (to be determined). Ruder Finn will coordinate international media “pro bono” for Roots of Peace, in collaboration with our partners with the UN Global Compact & US Department of State. High level media visibility is expected showcasing “public-private partnerships”. United Nations ushers will guide all dignitaries and guests WILL PASSES & PHOTO ID only across the street to the 1st Street Entrance through VIP security up to the 4th Floor. 12:00 NOON---“MINES TO VINES” RECEPTION The UN Delegate’s Dining room will have a special area designated for a “Mines to Vines” reception, where owners/vintners from Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley and New York wineries will feature a wine tasting describing the art-form of cultivating grapes. This will be a unique opportunity for guests to meet the “names behind the labels” and become familiar with leading wine makers as we toast “from coast to coast” to global peace. Of course, grape juice and sparkling water will be served to honor international guests whose cultures prohibit fermented grapes—respecting the various choices intertwined through the vine. The “Mines to Vines” theme will be carried forth into this venue, where HALO Trust, UN Mine Action groups, and US Government Mine Action supporters will prepare an official demonstration of inert landmines for display. Again, red-tape from minefields will surround the room, to bring in the serious tone of the landmine awareness raising event, as guests enjoy the fruits of the earth—symbolizing swords to plowshares. Hand-crafted art will also be on display from Afghanistan and Croatia, to show the opportunity lost when innocent limbs are viciously removed by landmine explosions. 12:45 LUNCHEON—UN Delegate’s Dining Room UN ushers will guide the guests into the UN Delegate’s Dining Room on the same floor. Hermes of Paris has graciously offered to provide all the fine porcelain china from France to decorate each table in a different pattern, symbolizing the global diversity and excellence that comes from the earth when nurtured and cultivated. All flowers and linens will also be donated by Hermes of Paris to create a feeling of elegance and bounty. The capacity for the room is 270 guests, and the US Department of State has offered to sponsor the private luncheon. Keynote speakers will deliver inspirational words, and a song of peace will be performed. Op-ed Please be aware of this event and SUPPORT Roots of Peace organization. Nenad Bach Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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