Stories from around the globe show how a united world is already in motion. This platform highlights experiences, initiatives, and projects from people and communities working for unity and peace. Explore what’s happening and get inspired.
<p><em>Kauai’s county council approved a proposed law Wednesday that mandates farms to disclose pesticide use and the presence of genetically modified crops.</em></p> <p><strong>The bill now goes to the mayor</strong>, who has 10 days to sign it into law. The measure applies to farms that use more than five pounds or 15 gallons of restricted-use pesticides annually. The bill also requires a 500-foot buffer zone near medical facilities, schools and homes—among other locations. The island hosts 15,000 acres of crop lands that are used by biotech companies and chemical manufacturers to test their products.</p>
<p><em>Italian and Balkan businessmen meet in Belgrade</em></p> <p><strong>(ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, OCTOBER 15 -</strong> Italy's interest in collaborating with Serbia and other Balkan countries for environmental protection and the use of renewable energy was underscored in a meeting between Italian businessmen and their counterparts from Balkan nations Tuesday in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was held as part of an international two-day conference on the theme 'Environmental Technologies and Renewable Energy Sources in the Balkans'.</p> <p><strong>Chamber of Commerce president Rasa Ristivojevic</strong> told the Italian guests about the benefits of investment in Serbia's free trade zones, where numerous Italian companies already operate.</p>
<p><em>For “The protagonists of the fraternity,” the figure of the sixteen year old Pakistani awarded the European Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.</em></p> <p><em></em><strong>Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai</strong> first came to public attention in 2009 when she wrote an affecting BBC diary about life under the Taliban. But three years later, in October 2012, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because of her campaign for girls' education. She was already well known in Pakistan, but that one shocking act catapulted her to international fame.</p> <p><strong>She survived the dramatic assault</strong>, in which a militant boarded her school bus in Pakistan's north-western Swat valley and opened fire, wounding two of her school-friends as well. The story of her slow recovery, from delicate surgery at a Pakistani military hospital to further operations and a programme of rehabilitation in the UK, has since been closely tracked by the world's media.</p>
<p><em>Rediscovering a dream</em></p> <p><strong>Europe’s deepest meaning embraces</strong> the physical map of the continent, crossing the political, economic and cultural history of millenniums, recalling the moral values on which a project of unification was built, which continues its progress today, between shoves, arrests, and restarts.<br /> <br /><strong>If the bases of the European civilization were built</strong> starting from ancient times, if the development of Christianity and of the Christian civilization have introduced elements of homogeneity, of a precise and clear European conscience, we cannot speak about of it if not in these modern times and in this contemporary era, a period that has known the most dramatic confrontations between opposing nationalisms, between ideologies able to put forward States’ claims and their will for economical dominance, and the cultural and anthropological confrontations going from political spaces, to battle fields.
<p><em>COMAI-sponsored debate on Francis October 19 in Rome</em></p> <p><strong>(ANSA) - Rome -</strong> The Association of Arab Communities in Italy (COMAI) will celebrate this year's Eid al-Adha, or the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, with a debate in Rome on mutual cultural understanding and the possibilities for dialogue with Pope Francis.</p> <p><strong>The Eid festival begins Tuesday</strong>.COMAI will hold its debate on Saturday, October 19 in a hotel in the Italian capital.</p> <p><strong>"The Eid festival will be an occasion</strong> to meet and debate religious issues and the turning point represented by Pope Francis", COMAI President Foad Aodi explained.</p>
<p><em>Ten rules launched at the end of the Meeting "Learning Faternity" in Castelgandolfo<br /></em></p> <p><strong>During the conference-workshop</strong> about Education and Fraternity wich took place last mounth ( Castelgandolfo 6-8 September) the Project of Learning Fraternity continues with lot's of enthusiasm with the "Ten rules for a Fraternal Education" .</p> <p><strong>Fraternity: person-relationship</strong></p> <p><strong>1.</strong> Be true witnesses of fraternity. “Educate with one’s life”: offer a model based on the authenticity of the educator’s being, on trust, dialogue, unconditional acceptance.
<p><em>It will start in Berlin and will go through Moscow, Irkutsk, Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul and Busan. A journey towards reunification of Koreas</em></p> <p><strong>A Peace Train has recently started its journey</strong> from Berlin, Germany through Russia and China to northeast Asia and the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10th assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea.<br />The train, which aims to raise awareness about the 60-year division of the Korean Peninsula, will travel through Moscow, Irkutsk, Beijing, Pyongyang and Seoul, and will finally arrive in Busan around the beginning of the assembly on 30 October.</p> <p><strong>The Peace Train is a project</strong> of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and the Korean Host Committee for the WCC assembly.</p>
<p><em>A book written by a South Korean poet and nurse receives award from Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. A story of fraternity</em></p> <p><strong>“My mother, in her eighties, has begun to make steps</strong> on the flowery path: gradually she no longer thought, and saw things with the heart. Finally, her heart gave in and her pure eyes were all that remained. She’s often a child of six or seven and asks about her small friends; sometimes she weeps because of her longing to see her Mamma and Papa;but then she trustfully smiles as she steps in and out of the flowery path.</p> <p><strong>Occasionally, following my Mother</strong>, I also step onto the flowery path, and the worrisome burdens of the world are turned into light clouds in the sky; I also become a mere flower within my mother’s secure enclosure.”</p>
<p><em>The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons awarded Prize amid Syria conflict</em></p> <p><strong>OSLO—The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons</strong> was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons."</p> <p><strong>The award, given in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee</strong>, comes as the intergovernmental OPCW is currently overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. The Netherlands-based group was launched in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention arms control treaty took effect. The Convention has 189 signatories and Syria has applied to be the 190th.</p> <p> </p>
Economy & Work
Thirty-five years ago a dream was born: the Economy of Communion. In late May Argentina will host an extraordinary celebration where people of all ages will come together to breathe new life into this project and write the future for a different kind of economy.
Lorna Gold, Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Movement, reflects on ten years of the encyclical, analysing how integral ecology is an essential path to global unity and tackling the climate crisis.
Operation Mato Grosso is working on over 100 missions across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, all rooted in education, hard work, and solidarity. Jacopo Manara, who has been a volunteer for years, tells us their story.
An interview on communication with Michele Zanzucchi, journalist and writer, former director of Città Nuova, professor of communication at Sophia University Institute and at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and author of around forty books.
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