How will this help world peace?
It's nice I suppose to be idealistic, but I do wonder how holding hands around a pyramid built centuries ago with slave labor will help.More than 1500 students, teachers and parents from 50 nationalities “formed a circle of peace that symbolized peace in the world” at the Giza Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, April 2, 2009, “delivering a message that young people from different cultures and religions can live together peacefully.” It’s hard to imagine what else that much money for the travel, food, hotel, etc. for 1500 might have done if these same students had just stayed home and helped their own countries. Perhaps that wasn't the purpose of the trip--maybe it was just Spring Break for rich kids and they needed a plan to get credit for it. However, tourism is Egypt’s number one industry, so I suppose they did help feed a family or two, just as we did during our recent trip.
Update, April 8: A reader has informed me this was an event of the New Cairo British International School. Upon checking the school's very nice website, I see nothing on the school calendar--no mention at all--but if you click to "parents" that's where you'll find the photos and the information which didn't appear in any of the news sources I checked. The school also celebrates Coptic Christmas holiday and has an Easter egg roll. The Prince of Peace you may recall, spent some time in Egypt when he was very young, and we celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Meanwhile, young people of a number of different nationalities, mostly sponsored by radical leftist organizations backed by Soros and various communist/marxist front organizations demonstrated against the G20 and U.S. capitalism (fast crumbling under the weight of Obama’s heavy hand to push us over the cliff into socialism/communism). All these countries are covering their own ineptitude and grabs for power with their "bash a banker" hooliganism, led by the likes of our own Barney Frank drooling and lisping in front of cameras for the world to see.
Update, April 8: You gotta love these capitalists. Some enterprising Frenchman is charging empty headed young people with full wallets $67 a piece to learn how to be street demonstrators against the evil capitalists. Saw it in today's WSJ--with photos of drop and roll.
And here is one of my husband's first paintings of our recent trip--he's moving faster than my blog which is still stuck on our first day in Israel.
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15 comments:
you obviously dont know the actual reason behind this event....... 30 years of NCBIS was celebrated and yes there was a song created called Circle of Peace but your facts are totally wrong...... maybe you should correct your blog...
Fact: The 50 nationalities among the 1500 people are all residents in Cairo, not tourists on a spring break as you claim. Our diversity of cultures under one roof signifies to us, at least, the possibility of peace around the world.
Let us enjoy our moment as Im sure you have had yours.. a long time ago.
Thank you for the correction. I searched several news sources and they all said the same thing. Not a one mentioned they were residents of Cairo.
But having participated in many of these "stand up for peace" events in my own life, I can tell you they are a good show, with no results.
In Columbus, OH alone, we have over 100 languages spoken by students in our public schools and universities. And we're a fraction the size of Cairo.
Please feel free to give a call to the organizers of the Circle of Peace if you would like to post an accurate description of this event.
Have a lovely trip home and I hope you find some positives to write about on the remainder of your travels as it really seems that you could use some good news.
Blessings
Snark. You could use a lift yourself.
Gee, you even thanked her for the correction and she's still mad that you didn't read the press release in . . . what? There was one sentence in USA Today. That's the problem with liberals. Even when they are right, they are unhappy. And she can't tell you how it will help world peace, either.
Poor Norma,
I don't think your trip is going too well is it? Hopefully you can cheer up a little and see that not all the world share your cynical views. This event made a difference to the children and community who formed the circle. The funds that will be donated to two very worthwhile local charities will certainly make a difference and you may go home a little wiser and a little more tolerant.
It's amazing the psychoanalyzing that goes on over a remark that gathering around a pyramid won't do much for world peace. But I've come to expect that from fly overs. Actually, we loved Cairo, even though a camel driver stole 50 euro from us.
It's people like you that give American's abroad such a bad reputation. Im so sad that you could write a blog like this when so many people and especially the children put their hearts into this grand expression of peace for the whole world to see.
Yes, it was a grand expression--one sentence in the newspaper that didn't report where they came from. I'm sure it was the children's idea and plan.
Im surprised a woman who raised children of your own and knows the impact of teaching children to care for others with different cultural backgrounds, as well as being an educator would write such a comment. I feel sorry for the students you taught. It must have been numbing for them to listen to such negativity.
In response to you saying, The Circle of Peace was only one line in the newspaper.........obviously you saw it and decided it was enough to negatively blog about. That means many more individuals saw it and even though it didn't change the world, it brought a smile, hope or simply a good feeling to someone completely around the world from where the event took place. BTW, the school had no idea it had a one liner in the USA Today....so there must have been a few Americans proud of the event huh?
Norma--you've obviously picked up a sticky troll with nothing else to do. But at least she's admitted it didn't do anything for world peace and got no news coverage unless you hunted for it down.
I never would have thought that the sole purpose of demonstrating for something you beleive it is only for news coverage...!
First, the school is called the New Cairo British International School and second, yes all the student and their families are residents of Cairo and it's just pure shame to automatically assume that it's a bunch of rich kids that their parents flew them into Cairo to feed a couple of families...!! Do your research before you write something that someone else reads - this is called misinformation.
I do agree with what's written above though. This is exactly the kind of ignorance you Americans present to the world and fight so hard for within your own country that makes you hated around the world. Or haven't you noticed that when you travelled recently?
From an educator that passes on a message to future generations, it's really a shame to tell your kids that there's no reason to stand up for peace and what you believe for because nothing is resolved at the end. An amazing way to imbed hope in those kids! This is an introduction to the American story for future generations.
But again what do you expect from a state like Ohio, the deciding state in the re-election of the great American President G.W. Bush. And where is America now - oh yeah driving the economy to the ground, making people redundant from their jobs, driving more people under the poverty line, the biggest consumer of world energy and the biggest contributor to the environmental crisis.
Good job America - keep it up. And I would personally like to thank the state of Ohio for giving the world 4 more years of stand up comedy. Thank you Mr. Bush.
Yes, a troll indeed. I never said they shouldn't do it. I asked how it was going to usher in world peace. Now I'm to be lectured by an anonymous someone afraid to step out and admit complete misinformation on our history. That certainly promotes harmony and good will. Fortunately, I'm a conservative and I believe in personal responsibility so her ignorance is her own. This is my blog, and I'll say what I believe is true. Others are free to write their own diaries, for that is what a blog is.
I do appreciate the additional information on the school children who organized this (smile). The three sources I checked made no mention of this. So in addition to paying high tuition (it would never do to attend public school crowded classes with ordinary poor Cairo kids), the parents got to fund 40 buses and the kids got a day off from school? It did help the local economy and the pyramids are a fabulous site.
Although these kum-ba-ya experiences are mostly for show (although far better than the Frenchman charging $67 a piece to teach kids how to be street protesters), if even ONE child returns to his regular life determined that bullying, teasing, ridicule, insulting a sibling, sassing his parents, cheating on tests, envying someone else's appearance, friends or clique, or any area of conflict over which he personally has control, and realizes that is where "world peace" begins--with the individual--then the whole event was worth every penny and hour and committee and planning effort.
And now, on behalf of world peace, the comments are closed.
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