Olympic Truce Meeting in Torino, 23 - 27 Feb. 2005 - Ποιειν Και Πραττειν

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Olympic Truce Meeting in Torino, 23 - 27 Feb. 2005

Introduction

The purpose of the meeting was to draft together with other youths a resolution on the Olympic Trmuce to be presented to the United Nations as part of the preparations for the next Winter Gaes in Torino 2006 and Summer Games in Beijing 2008. The meeting was organized by PEACE WAVES in collaboration with POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN and supported by the Council of Europe. May it serve as a bridge between Athens 2004 and all future Olympic Games.

Anna Arvanitaki,

President of POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN

Organisational support:

Elpida Papavassiliou and Alexis Daras assisted Thomas Economacos and Hatto Fischer when preparing for the Olympic Truce Meeting in Torino and Pracatinat, Italy.

The Greek delegation included:

Dimitra Petanidou,

Anthimos Dikmes

Fivos Stamboliadis

Marialena Stamboliadis

Vangelis Manaos

Letter to the youths gathering in Torino 23. – 27.Feb. 2005

by Dimitra Petanidou

Before introducing myself, I would like to express how lucky and satisfied I feel for participating in this meeting, which I regard as a great opportunity to learn a lot and interact with each other.

I am 25 years old and during the Olympic Games in Athens I was working at one of the most popular international bookstores in the heart of the city, so my experiences on everyday transactions with a large number of different people are many and some of them pretty interesting.

I understand that the people of Turin and of Beijing of course, must feel very anxious about the realization of the Games. In Greece it was the same, adding the fact that there also was a big debate about whether this small geographically and financially country could stand the burden of such a demanding task. A flow of skepticism and doubt emerged which put on trial not only the endurance but also the good will of the Greek people. The Greek delegation practically represents this mixture of ambiguous feelings and different opinions while at the same time carries the still-living Olympic aura and the later on “meta-Olympic” melancholy, which still is a matter of discussion in Athens.

However, lots of things might be said and even more can be put in doubt, but let us consider all these as seeds for future development. The Olympic Games are an international event that still exists despite and through all difficulties. Let us hope that events like this meeting here will contribute to a sincere “auto-criticism” of the Games, in order to identify their “deeds” and weaknesses and work on them.

OLYMPIC TRUCE Resolution Meeting

Torino, 23rd –27th February 2005

OLYMPIC TRUCE: a challenge for sports an opportunity for peace!

Considering the art. 1 of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the UN regarding the

observance of the Olympic Truce during the winter and summer Olympic Games -

A/RES/48/11, 1993:

“The General Assembly of United Nations commends the International Olympic Committee, the International Sports Federations and the National Olympic Committees for their efforts to mobilize the youth of the world in the cause of peace”

The young participants of the Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting – Torino (Italy) 23rd 27th February 2005 - promote a proposal for the UN Resolution for the observance of the Olympic Truce during the Winter Olympic Games of Torino 2006 to be discussed during the sixtieth UN General Assembly from September to December 2005.

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 58/6 dated 18 November 2003, in which it decided to include in the provisional agenda of its sixtieth session the item entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic Ideal” and its decision to consider this item every two years in advance of each Summer and Winter Olympic Games,

Recalling also its resolution 48/11 of 25 October 1993, which, inter alia, revived the ancient Greek tradition of ekecheiria or “Olympic Truce” calling for a truce during the Games that would encourage a peaceful environment and ensuring the safe passage and participation of athletes and others at the Games and, thereby, mobilizing the youth of the World to the cause of peace,

Taking into consideration the inclusion in the United Nations Millennium Declaration an appeal for the observance of the Olympic Committee in its efforts to promote peace and human understanding though sport and the Olympic ideal,

Noting that the Games of the XX Winter Olympiads will take place from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, in Italy, and endorsed by the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of that organization,

Welcoming the initiative of the Secretary-General to establish the United Nations Inter-agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace,

Recognizing that the goal of the Olympic movement is to built a peaceful and better World by educating the youth and the World through sport, practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding, promoted by friendship, solidarity and fair play,

Recognizing also the valuable contribution that the appeal launched by the International Olympic Committee for an Olympic Truce, with which the National Olympic Committees of the Member States are associated, could make towards advancing purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

Welcoming the individual support of World personalities for the promotion of the Olympic Truce,

organized by in partnership with

OLYMPIC TRUCE: a challenge for sports an opportunity for peace!

OLYMPIC TRUCE Resolution

Torino, 23rd –27th February 2005

The Resolution:

1. Urges Member States to observe the Olympic Truce during the XX Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in Turin, Italy 10th - 26th February 2006 and the Paralympic Games, which will be held in Turin, 10th - 19th March 2006, the vision of which is the stop of all ongoing conflicts. This will be achieved by non-violent settlement of conflicts and reopening dialog channels among communities and cultures through youth participation in democratic processes using sport, art and education as universal means of cohesion to further Human Sustainable Development.

2. Calls upon all Member States to facilitate the equalisation of the Paralympic Games with the Olympic Games so that the Paralympic athletes have equal rights while the Olympic Truce period is extended to include the Paralympics.

3. Requests the International Olympic Committee to cooperate with the accredited UN Agencies and the UN Commissioner for Human Rights for the monitoring of universal human rights standards and their possible violations during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and that already passed and future resolutions are fully enacted upon.

4. Asks the UNESCO agency to make the concept of the Olympic Truce and of the games be a part of the World’s Common Heritage.

5. Requests the commitment of the candidate cities to an Olympic Truce Action Plan including social, economic, environmental and cultural development measures to be used as criteria for evaluation by the International Olympic Committee during the selection process.

6. Requests Member States to promote Olympic Truce actions for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and support the campaigns against child labour.

7. Welcomes the organisation of an Olympic Truce Youth Camp to be held in the host city of the Summer and Winter Games; and that the Youth Camp, from now on, during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, will deal with issues such as Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Youth policies in order to increase the awareness of the Olympic Truce.

8. Urges Member States to promote the Olympic Truce spirit and ideals among children and youth during their compulsory education by organizing artistic cultural activities and encouraging the public to debate with athletes and other functionaries about Olympic values and fair play.

9. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-second Session the item entitled “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal” and to consider this item before the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in the year 2008.

ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗ ΕΚΕΧΕΙΡΙΑ

Πρόκληση για τον Αθλητισμό

Ευκαιρία για την Ειρήνη

Τορίνο 23-27 Φεβ.’05

Έχοντας υπόψη το άρθρο 1 του Ψηφίσματος της Γενικής Συνέλευσης των Ηνωμένων Εθνών αναφορικά με την τήρηση της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας στη διάρκεια των χειμερινών και θερινών Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων Α/RES/48/11,1993.

«Η Γενική Συνέλευση των Ηνωμένων Εθνών συγχαίρει τη Διεθνή Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή, τις Διεθνείς Αθλητικές Ομοσπονδίες και τις Εθνικές Ολυμπιακές Επιτροπές για τις προσπάθειές τους να κινητοποιήσουν τους νέους του κόσμου με σκοπό την ειρήνη. Οι νέοι που συμμετέχουν στη Συνάντηση της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας – Τορίνο Ιταλίας 23- 27 Φεβ. 2005 προτείνουν η τήρηση της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας στη διάρκεια των Χειμερινών Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων στο Τορίνο το 2006, να συζητηθεί στη διάρκεια της Εξηκοστής Γενικής Συνέλευσης των Ηνωμένων Εθνών από τον Σεπτέμβριο ως τον Δεκέμβριο του 2005.

Η Γενική Συνέλευση.

Αναφερόμενη στην απόφαση της 58/6 με ημερομηνία 18 Νοεμβρίου 2003, όπου αποφασίστηκε να συμπεριλάβει στην προσωρινή ημερήσια διάταξη της Εξηκοστής Συνεδρίασής της θέμα με τίτλο: «Οικοδομώντας έναν ειρηνικό και καλύτερο κόσμο μέσα από τον αθλητισμό και το Ολυμπιακό Ιδεώδες» και την απόφασή της να επανεξετάζει το θέμα αυτό κάθε δύο χρόνια πριν από κάθε Θερινό και Χειμερινό Ολυμπιακό Αγώνα.

Αναφερόμενη, επίσης, στην απόφαση της 48/11 της 25^ης Οκτωβρίου 1993 όπου, μεταξύ άλλων, αναβίωσε η αρχαία Ελληνική παράδοση της «Εκεχειρίας» ή της «Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας», ζητώντας εκεχειρία στη διάρκεια των Αγώνων, πράγμα που θα ενθάρρυνε ένα ειρηνικό περιβάλλον και θα εξασφάλιζε την ασφαλή μετακίνηση και συμμετοχή των αθλητών και του κοινού στους Αγώνες, κινητοποιώντας έτσι τη νεότητα του Κόσμου προς τον σκοπό της ειρήνης.

Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη την ιδέα η Διακήρυξη της Χιλιετίας των Ηνωμένων Εθνών να συμπεριλαμβάνει έκκληση για την διατήρηση της Ολυμπιακής Επιτροπής στην προσπάθειά της να προωθήσει την ειρήνη και την ανθρώπινη κατανόηση μέσ’ απ’ τον Αθλητισμό και το Ολυμπιακό ιδεώδες.

Σημειώνοντας ότι οι Εικοστοί Χειμερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες θα λάβουν χώρα από τις 10 ως τις 26 Φεβρουαρίου 2006, στο Τορίνο της Ιταλίας, υποστηριζόμενοι από τη Συνέλευση Αρχηγών Κρατών και Κυβερνήσεων αυτής της οργάνωσης.

Εκτιμώντας την πρωτοβουλία της Γενικής Γραμματείας να οργανώσει την Ειδική Μεσολαβητική Υπηρεσία Αθλητισμού για την Ανάπτυξη και την Ειρήνη.

Αναγνωρίζοντας ότι ο σκοπός της Ολυμπιακής κίνησης είναι να χτίσει έναν ειρηνικό και καλύτερο Κόσμο μορφώνοντας τη νεότητα και τον κόσμο μέσ’ απ’ τον αθλητισμό που θα εφαρμόζεται χωρίς καμία διάκριση μέσα στο Ολυμπιακό πνεύμα, που απαιτεί αμοιβαία κατανόηση, φιλική υποστήριξη, αλληλεγγύη και τιμιότητα.

Αναγνωρίζοντας, επίσης, πόσο πολύτιμη θα ήταν η συνεισφορά που η έκκληση της Διεθνούς Ολυμπιακής Επιτροπής για μια Ολυμπιακή Εκεχειρία σε συνεργασία με τις Εθνικές Ολυμπιακές Επιτροπές των Κρατών Μελών, θα έκανε για την πρόοδο των σκοπών και των αρχών του Χάρτη των Ηνωμένων Εθνών.

Εκτιμώντας την προσωπική στήριξη από Παγκόσμιες προσωπικότητες της ιδέας της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας

(Η Γενική Συνέλευση)

1. Προτρέπει τα Κράτη Μέλη να τηρήσουν την Ολυμπιακή Εκεχειρία στη διάρκεια των Εικοστών Ολυμπιακών Χειμερινών Αγώνων, που θα γίνουν στο Τορίνο της Ιταλίας, 10-26 Φεβρουαρίου 2006 και των Παρα-Ολυμπιακών που θα γίνουν στο Τορίνο 10-190 Μαρτίου 2006 και που έχουν σαν όραμα να σταματήσουν όλες οι συγκρούσεις που εξακολουθούν να συμβαίνουν. Αυτό μπορεί να κατορθωθεί με μη βίαιο διακανονισμό των συγκρούσεων και με το να ξανανοίξουν οι δίαυλοι του διαλόγου ανάμεσα σε κοινότητες και πολιτισμούς, με τη συμμετοχή των νέων στις δημοκρατικές διαδικασίες, χρησιμοποιώντας τον αθλητισμό, την τέχνη και την εκπαίδευση σαν παγκόσμια μέσα ενότητας για την προώθηση μιας Ανθρώπινης Αειθαλούς Ανάπτυξης.

2. Καλεί όλα τα Κράτη-Μέλη να διευκολύνουν την ισότητα των Παρα-Ολυμπιακών με τους Ολυμπιακούς Αγώνες, έτσι ώστε οι Παρα-Ολυμπιακοί αθλητές να έχουν τα ίδια δικαιώματα και η περίοδος της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας να παραταθεί ώστε να περιλαμβάνει και τους Παρα-Ολυμπιακούς.

3. Ζητάει από τη Διεθνή Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή να συνεργαστεί με τις εξουσιοδοτημένες Υπηρεσίες των Ηνωμένων Εθνών και τον Επίτροπο για τα Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα των Ηνωμένων Εθνών για τον συντονισμό των παγκόσμιων κανόνων των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων για να αποφευχθεί η πιθανή παραβίασή τους στη διάρκεια των Ολυμπιακών και Παρα-Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων, όπως και να βεβαιωθεί ότι οι αποφάσεις που ελήφθησαν και θα ληφθούν εφαρμόζονται πλήρως.

4. Ζητάει από την υπηρεσία της UNESCO να καταστήσει την ιδέα της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας και των αγώνων σαν μέρος της Παγκόσμιας Κοινής Κληρονομιάς.

5. Ζητάει τη δέσμευση των υποψηφίων πόλεων ως προς ένα Σχέδιο Δράσης Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας που θα περιλαμβάνει κοινωνικά, οικονομικά, περιβαλλοντικά και πολιτιστικά μέτρα ανάπτυξης και που θα χρησιμοποιηθούν σαν κριτήρια αξιολόγησης από τη Διεθνή Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή κατά τη διαδικασία της επιλογής.

6. Ζητάει από τα Κράτη-Μέλη να προάγουν τις δραστηριότητες της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας για την πραγματοποίηση των Αναπτυξιακών Σκοπών της χιλιετίας και να υποστηρίξουν τις καμπάνιες ενάντια στην εργασία των παιδιών

7. Πολύ ευχαρίστως δέχεται την πρόταση ή οργάνωση της Κατασκήνωσης Νεότητας της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας να γίνεται στην πόλη που φιλοξενεί τους Θερινούς και τους Χειμερινούς Αγώνες. Έτσι, από τώρα και στο εξής, η Κατασκήνωση Νεότητας, στη διάρκεια των Ολυμπιακών και Παρα-Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων θα εξετάζει θέματα όπως Αειθαλής Ανάπτυξη, Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα, Πολιτική Νεότητας, με σκοπό να γίνει συνείδηση η Ολυμπιακή Εκεχειρία.

8. Προτρέπει τα Κράτη-Μέλη να προωθήσουν το πνεύμα και τα ιδανικά της Ολυμπιακής Εκεχειρίας ανάμεσα στα παιδιά και τους νέους στη διάρκεια της υποχρεωτικής εκπαίδευσής τους, οργανώνοντας καλλιτεχνικές, πολιτιστικές εκδηλώσεις και ενθαρρύνοντας το κοινό να συζητάει δημόσια με τους αθλητές και άλλους δημόσιους λειτουργούς για τις Ολυμπιακές αξίες και τους έντιμους αγώνες.

9. Αποφασίζει να συμπεριλάβει στο προκαταρκτικό πρόγραμμα της 62^ης Διάσκεψής της θέμα με τίτλο: «Οικοδομώντας έναν ειρηνικό και καλύτερο κόσμο μέσ’ από τον αθλητισμό και το Ολυμπιακό Ιδεώδες» και να μελετήσει αυτό το θέμα πριν από την 29^η Ολυμπιάδα στο Πεκίνο της Κίνας, το 2008.

(translation by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke)
The Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting

- a challenge for sport, an opportunity for peace -

- 23^rd to 27^th February 2005 -

In preparation for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games of Turin 2006, PeaceWaves ONLUS organised The Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting from the 23^rd to the 27^th of February 2005 in Pracatinat (Turin, Italy) together with Poiein kai Prattein.

This was the third meeting of a process which started in February 2004 in order to create a research-action group for the Olympic Truce, involving Local Bodies, Civil Society, Universities, Institutes of Research, Schools, teachers and students.

The 1st National Seminar about the Olympic Truce was held in Pracatinat and it involved students and teachers from all over the Italy. The second meeting took place in Genoa from the 8th to the 11th of June 2004, during the European Youth Forum. It involved boys and girls from Italy and from some Countries that are part of the European Council.

The 3^rd meeting was more international with 45 international participants and 15 from Italy.

From the following Countries of the European Council came participants: Greece, Malta, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Turkey and Cyprus.

All participants are engaged or interested in themes connected to Peace, Human Rights, sustainable and equal human development and in particular to Sports and Social Justice.

The Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting, as the previous ones, aims to achieve the Olympic Spirit and to transform it into concrete actions of peace. But, above all, its main task is to issue a Resolution to be delivered to the United Nation for the observance of the Olympic Truce during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

This event was be carried out and planned mostly by young people together with PEACE WAVES and POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN. It included group workshops, plenum debates and entertainment.

Peace Waves

peacewaves@peacewaves.org

www.peacewaves.org

Project financed by the Council of Europe: summary

The Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting will have the purpose of making young people discuss, learn and plan actions regarding sport as a peace tool.

Thus, the objectives of the meeting will be:

To share and discuss the values of sport;
Identify and discuss the ways sport can be a peace tool and a sustainable development tool (e.g. local Olympic Truce actions, actions for Agenda 21);
To discuss about disability and how to arrange for best practices and policies in big sport events and local youth events.
To create a working group that will have the task of organizing the Olympic Truce Youth Camp during the Turin Winter Olympic Games in February- March 2006;

The programme will then be divided into lectures, group works and plenary discussions.

The main lectures will concern: Sport as a Peace tool (a discussion of how sport can bring together people, the Olympic Truce and Peace, International and European laws about sport and peace); an example of Olympic Truce: the Cyprus-Turkish case (lecture by an expert of International law); Disabled and Olympism (lecture by a disabled athlete).

The participants will be divided into different groups that will discuss the following themes:

planning local actions – with European vision – about the Olympic Truce;
planning the Olympic Truce Youth Camp that will take place in Turin from 24th February to 11th March 2006 during the Turin Winter Olympic Games;
writing proposals for the Turin Olympic Truce UN Resolution that will be presented to the TOROC (Turin Olympic Games Organizing Committee).

Finally, in the plenary session, participants will discuss the different proposals and will write a report of the discussions. They will also arrange for local actions regarding the Truce to be held from March 2005 (end of the meeting) till February 2006 (Turin Winter Olympic Games and Youth Camp). These actions will be coordinated by PeaceWaves ONLUS and the other partners in order to have a continuity until February 2006 when part of the participants will meet again in Turin for the Olympic Truce Youth Camp.

Purpose in our short and long term programme:

The Olympic Events in Athens 2004 and Turin 2006, the University Games in Turin '07, the Mediterranean Games in Pescara '09 will introduce into the Mediterranean area a common understanding of sport and peace.

Different actions were organized for the promotion of sport as a peace tool: Peace Ambassadors courses, Olympic Volunteers courses (Turin, 02-04), Olympic Truce Students’ Games (Perugia 02, 03).

As PeaceWaves promotes youth participation in decision making processes and planning of youth policies, this meeting will also be the starting point for the organization of the Youth Camp that will take place in Turin in 2006.

This event will be organized by young people.

The preparation of the meeting will proceed, starting from the experience of the partners, through different steps and meetings.

Step 1: Regional level (40 people)

The first meeting has been organized in February 2004 by PeaceWaves ONLUS and IRRE Piedmont (a State Body for High Education Research). The 40 participants were students and teachers coming from the Piedmont Region and from other Italian Regions. The main aims of this meeting were

build a National group in order to plan local actions for the Truce,
build a communication plan for the Truce (e.g. web site designing, online
forum, etc),
discussing actions and ideas for the June 2004 and the February 2005 Olympic Truce Forums.

Step 2: European level (80 people)

The second meeting will be organized in June 2004 in Genoa during the Genoa International Youth Forum. The participants will come from all over the current and future EU States.

This meeting will have the task of discussing the possible Olympic Truce actions for the Olympic Games of Athens 2004. Furthermore they will discuss how to practically organize the Feb 2005 meeting “Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting”. During this event the participants will study how to develop a UN resolution and the contents of the Truce Resolution for

Athens 2004.

Since Feb 2004 an on-line forum has been activated in order to share ideas and opinions about possible Truce actions.

Specifically the preparatory-leadership group will discuss about the meeting by means such as e-mails, web-cam conferences, etc.

The preparatory group is composed by all the participants that took place in the February 2004 and June 2004 meetings and by a leadership group that will have the task of coordinating the meeting composed by representatives of the partners:

Marco Braghero

PeaceWaves President

Daniele Rosa

PeaceWaves National Coordinator

Hatto Fischer

Poiein kai Prattein Coordinator

Follow-up to the meeting (other than a report):

Participants will discuss the different proposals and will activate actions in their own territories. They will arrange for local actions regarding the Truce to be held from March 2005 (end of the meeting) till February 2006 (Turin Winter Olympic Games and Youth Camp). These actions will be coordinated by PeaceWaves ONLUS and the other partners in order to have a continuity until February 2006 when part of the participants will meet again in Turin for the Olympic Truce Youth Camp.

Furthermore an interactive CD-ROM will be made in order to spread the decisions, best practices and proposals of actions. This CD-ROM will be given to associations, schools, local governments and policy makers that will have the task of spreading the outputs of the meeting.

The proposals for the Olympic Truce UN Resolution, given by the participants, will be then discussed (by the participants) with the TOROC and the Italian Ambassador at the United Nations in order to have, for the very first time, a really democratic UN resolution built from the below.

|e-mail: peacewaves@peacewaves.org

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN

Actions during Athens 2004

Voices of the Poets about upholding the Olympic Truce

“Economy and simplicity,” saith maestro Keeley. There were Seferis’s masters. And are mine. The Greek “burden of history” is unique in some ways, I think, because of the influence of classical Greek thought on so much of the world. For other ancient cultures like China and India, the geography often changed shape, empires came and went. For the Greeks, the classical period did not really end but simply continued to evolve. And Greece is a small country to have such enormous influence, to have created our notion of democracy, for instance. Greece has been overrun and occupied and resurrected, always changing, always evolving, but still holding to its root. In this, it is like the Chinese. It is both a treasure and a burden, I think, to be a Greek poet.

Sam Hamill 18.2.2004

Sam Hamill founded the 'Poets against the War' after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The Worst Crime by Sonja A. Skarstedt

I see neglected limbs
in stationary trees;
corpses whose eyes protrude
in silenced shock,
whose withered feet
shall waltz no more
than the barren breeze permits.

The first glance insures
the shameless slumps
of those who’ve paid
society’s debt.

Well?
Did they murder?
Did they steal?
Lie... or cheat?
What, then?
(for surely these dead were guilty
of some horrible crime)

The Worst, you say?
Oh.
They were Jews.

(one of four poems written in response to Stan Asher’s course on The Holocaust, at John Abbott College, 1978-79; published in Octagon, 1981)

WAR DIARY by Katerina Anghelaki Rooke

13^th Day or Now on land!

The heavenly battles descend on the soil

and death returns to earth:

its place of origin.

High flashes accompany it;

it is the only luxury left to the corpses.

Indeed, how did evil change direction!

From below, its immediate action would start:

from mud, hoofs of animals

boots, swamps and it would rise

up to the black clouds and the innocent souls.

Now the desert,

as I imagine it with countless pink shades

sand breasts

breathing in the desert wind

a secret body

with its dark oases hidden under

impartial spectator of disaster

conquered by parachutes.

From above downwards now

the evolution of bleeding flesh;

heaven a past in flames

will be forgotten

and the good will be thrust in the earth

buried deep, very deep in memory.

“Poets and the Olympic Truce” - some observations by Hatto Fischer

Athens hosted the Olympic Games in August 2004, but due to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan ‘security’ — and not the Olympic Truce — was the overriding concern. As a matter of fact, efforts (including involvement of NATO forces leading to further militarization) made to secure the games against all kinds of threats pushed completely the true meaning of the Olympic Games into the background.

An editorial in the International Herald Tribune on Feb. 10^th 2004 referred to the need to distinguish between true and false threats. Since September 11^th and the massive exaggerations that the whole of America had come under attack, this was used not only to create fear of further attacks, but to justify to go to war on a ‘permanent basis’. The permanent war excludes any cultural dimension and therefore any hope for peace. As such ‘the war against terrorism’ let not only the American administration incur all kinds of false judgments i.e. Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessing ‘weapons of mass destruction’, but also to overreactions, the going to war on March 21, 2003 against Iraq a most recent and painful example.

When the Olympic Games started in Athens 2004, that war in Iraq was continuing. Despite America having signed with other nations the UN resolution, all of a sudden the Bush administration did not feel bound by that resolution. In the daily newspaper the reason why was reported as follows:

“US denies breach of Games truce

Washington (AFP) – The United States said yesterday its military operations in Iraq are not covered by the so-called Olympic Truce it signed last year at the United Nations.

The State Department said US soldiers now fighting in Iraq would not be bound by the terms of the truce that calls for all nations in conflict to observe a traditional ceasefire during the Games.

“I reject the notion that somehow we are violating any Olympic principles by what’s going on in Iraq,” deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. “I don’t think there’s a connection between the truce and what’s going on in Iraq.” On November 3, 2003, the United States was among 190 of 191 UN General Assembly members to co-sponsor and adopt a Greek-submitted resolution titles “Building a Peaceful and Better World Through Sport and the Olympic Ideas,” the key component of which was the truce.

The resolution “urges the member states to observe, within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations, the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively, during the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.” Perhaps ironically, the US ambassador to the United Nations at the time was John Negroponte who is now Washington’s top diplomat in Iraq, the lone UN member not to sign the truce because it was then under a US-led occupation government and not represented at the world body.

Shortly after the resolution was adopted, UN chief Kofi Annan said the truce was a “powerful message” for all combatants to cease fighting and think about peace, even if hostilities stopped for only 24 hours.[1]”

A lot was made and said about the Olympic Games returning ‘home’: to ancient grounds where the Olympics started first in the Classical Period and then again over 100 years when the new games were reinvented. It was thought that at least the ancient ideal calling for the prevalence of peace while the Games were in progress would contribute to making these Games a success not only in Greece but world wide.

Olympic Truce conveys the meaning that no one resorts to violence during the Games, in order that the athletic competition can take place in a peaceful environment. Taken further, this ideal should also mean that no one be permitted to resort to violence in order to influence the overall outcome of the Games. Rather, fair sportsmanship and non-violence serve as a guarantee that the honors taken home by the winning athletes will bestow a sense of pride and civility upon life everywhere.

While discussing within POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN what possible contribution artists, poets, writers, philosophers, filmmakers etc., could make to the Olympic Games of 2004, one idea struck a deep cord. The idea of creating a poetic movement in support of the Olympic Truce by linking to the efforts of the ‘Poets against the War’ in America would mean going beyond mere anti-war movements. The conditions of peace are varied but they begin as Ancient Greek poets knew already by taking measure to ensure that things are happening within human proportions and that man avoids such tragic dimensions as shown by the playwrights of Ancient Greek dramas.

Thus the impetus behind Poets and the Olympic Truce was to bring about an Anthology of Poets and their Poems connected thematically, geographically and intricately, in order to be linked together with the quest for Olympic Truce to be observed during the Olympic Games being held in Athens August 13 – August 29^th and then continued with the Paralympic Games in September.

To start with, a group of poets had been asked to contribute some of their poems to an Anthology on the topic “Poets and the Olympic Truce”. The group is comprised of international poets, in particular Sam Hamill and Mary Lathrop of “Poets against the War|” in America — along with Athens-based Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Pedro Mateo, Charis Vlavianos, Socrates Kabouropoulos and Hatto Fischer. Then there is Stevan Tontic in Sarajevo, Giulio Stocchi in Milano, Sonja A. Skarstedt in Montreal and Michael D. Higgins in Galway and Brendan Kennelly in Dublin, Ireland.

Poets and the Olympic Truce is centered on a wish that the Games held in Athens 2004 would take place under the auspices of a free poetic spirit. However, these Games were a far cry from such spirit. Instead the VIPS (and not the athletes, volunteers or spectators) attending the Games were over protected by police, cameras, security surveillance from the air, sea and land. As a result many poets went silent even before the Games began on August 13^th. They left with so many other Athenians the city. As a result neither the Opening of the Games nor the Closing heard the voices of someone like Elytis.

Looking back, many Greeks did not know what to expect or how to relate to such an international event. Many stayed away out of fear of a pending attack. Others wished to avoid traffic congestions. It combined well with also those who would leave Athens anyway around that time of the year, August 15^th one of the biggest holidays in Greece. It had been planned that way to make transport in Athens that much easier if not 4 to 5 Million people were in the city but only half or even less. Only in the second week did people return and picked up a sense of that international atmosphere. That explains why many competitions took place during the first week with stands hardly filled by people.

The absence of both poets and people at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 was also due to the fact that artists and people were not allowed to participate in the preparations. Again the fear created by 9.11 pushed aside all considerations going in that direction. Instead things were dictated by all necessary but equally unnecessary security arrangements.

The 1 Billion Euro spend on security is an amount that cannot be justified but it has become a new game of making expenditures break through any budgetary ceiling. In the end there is no one to judge whether it was too much, for who is to say that one more plane in the air was needed to attain that highly evasive security. Retrospectively ‘the success of the Games’ in Athens is linked to the fact that no terrorist attack took place. Instead doping of the two main Greek sprinters cast a shadow over the opening ceremony while towards the nearly perfect record of hosting the Games free from major incidents was marred when a disarrayed Irish Priest sprang suddenly out of the waving crowd near the finishing line of the Marathon race and pushed the lead Brazilian runner into the crowd. It had the consequence that the runner lost his rhythm and with it his nearly secured Gold medal. Of course, there were other mishaps such as volunteers in need of eating the food of the sponsors for nothing else was served once on the grounds of the Olympic stadium and that meant hot dogs, chips and coke or water but nothing else, or else a volunteer being kept all the time on the parking lot and never allowed to see one of the Games’ event, but that is minor. More tricky it became when those in charge of doping control could not get immediately the car they needed at the hotel were they were staying. Also the translators were not happy with what went on in terms of being kept not on line but in a ready position to work when in fact they were never really needed all the time. Here one could say no Games at such scale would be free of such frictions and it is not the purpose of re-accounting the many things seen during the Games, but they turned out to be for people who went to see them quite an experience. Especially for the Greeks it brought home that despite all misgivings they had completed something on schedule and this in conjunction with the IOC to the best of their abilities. Since then Greeks talk about the Games as having discovered their potential self’s in need of such self confidence in order to tackle challenges of the future.

But to return to this Anthology ‘POETRY CONNECTION” the intention was to bring about a debate about the difference between war and peace. There are some deeply moving poems that can further our understanding of ‘truce’ as part of daily life when threatened by ‘terrorism’.

Nails By Brendan Kennelly

The black van exploded

Fifty yards from the hotel entrance.

Two men, one black-haired, the other red,

Had parked it there as though for a few moments

While they walked around the corner

Not noticing, it seemed, the children

In single file behind their perky leader,

And certainly not seeing the van

Explode into the children’s bodies.

Nails, nine inches long, lodged

In chest, ankle, thigh, buttock, shoulder, face.

The quickly gathered crowd was outraged and shocked.

Some children were whole, others bits and pieces.

These blasted cruxifixions are commonplace.

(Note: this poem is taken from his Cromwell Poems with the permission of the author)

For instance, the poem ‘Nails’ by Brendan Kennelly asks but what can bystanders do if a bomb goes off and nearby innocent children are hit by a cluster of nails and other objects? In the fight against terrorism it should not be forgotten that it is usually the third parties, in particular the innocent bystanders, who are the victims. Indeed poetry must address this random violence if children and innocent bystanders are hit. What can be done to protect human beings against this kind of violent rage mixed with cold calculations that allow the throwing of bombs amongst people just traveling home on a train or else shopping at a market place? Much of it has been seen in the Middle East as part of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, or now in Iraq. The reactions of the authorities transform these kinds of wild attacks into again overreactions as if the emotions of the world could be whipped up over and again by not controlling responses but by taking more and more revenge again and again without further thought about consequences. What to do when caught in such spiral of violence using the unknown caused by arbitrary selection of targets to create fear?

Can poetry contribute towards making a truce possible and then continue to work on the conditions of peace? There is Sudan, while the security situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating around the time of the Olympic Games so rapidly that unarmed aid workers of “Doctors without Frontiers” no longer felt save to operate there. In Iraq the way to democracy has been over sanctions, invasion, occupation and suppression all while the key principle, namely a peaceful transition of political power, has not been observed. Here the West failed to uphold democratic practice and continues misusing not only humanitarian grounds, but also arguments for freedom and against dictatorship to overthrow governments by violent means. As if full cooperation and compliance are the prerequisites of this new World Order. Indeed, there is a need to ask what world we live in if aiding human beings in need – starvation as much as bleeding – is prevented for the sake of tactical moves at the bargaining table?

Yes, poetry must be perceived as a sign of respect for such human relationships yet to evolve so as to ensure peace between all people and states. Once that figure of peace can be found and articulated so as to hold out the tension between conflicting parties in a positive way, then this would bring to human situations a sense of justice and a truer dimension of communication with the world. The latter can only then be considered a human community when people are not abandoned and competition does not lead to false national claims and further aggression.

All this puts into doubt the sense of ‘competition’ as interpreted and implemented in the modern Olympic Games. Consequently it has to be acknowledged that the organizers of Athens were successful only in an extremely limited sense. In reality, the organizers failed to bring about an alternative Olympic event that could uphold the peace process and free people from the need for false competitions since the hunger and prestige for more medals leads not to international friendship but exactly to more doping scandals and young athletes ruined in their health for life.

The modern Olympic Games have become a gigantic PR exercise in terms of global business and managing practices. It merges in a clever way over commercialization of an old idea with systematic exploitation of any place willing to host them. When appraising the costly infrastructure put in place in Athens, then the Games mean just that: the locally being taken hostage by the onslaught of international capital that demands things as seemed fit for hosting the Games for but two weeks. There is no real sustainability about them but in its wake the Games leave behind a few winners and an entire city and even nation confronting a huge debt for years to come. It is a burden put upon future generations that cannot be justified. But precisely the race is on that the next Games must still be bigger, better, faster, there is no way that modest Games could be held at human scale where once ancient athletes competed more with the winds while accompanied by the shouts of the poets to ensure that the herald of things could be heard.

In terms of the Olympic Games 2004 the biggest contradiction between what Athens used to be, namely a safe city in which people could easily walk in the streets in the night without fear, and what it has become as a result of the Olympic Games, namely an over defended city with all sorts of armies and security officials in plain clothes, that can be seen in view of what Pericles said in Ancient Times when giving his ‘Funeral Speech’: “Athens does not need armies to protect itself, but active citizenship”. The fact that no active citizenship appeared anywhere while the Games were prepared and then hosted, that is the surest sign that the Athens 2004 Games were no success but quite the opposite.

There is still another question to be answered. It can be asked but why do poets object to the term ‘competition’ even if the Olympic Games are presented in reference to the Olympic Truce as if athletes from different nations compete with one another under friendly conditions? First of all, the competition between athletes is not at individual basis nor are they selected as coming from cities or the countryside to distinguish them somehow. No, they come from sport schools of nations and reinforce the myth of the competitiveness of the nations they represent. At the Athens Games it was very much observed how well the Chinese athletes performed and this naturally leads to expectations with regards to the next Summer Olympic Games since being held in Beijing 2008. Still, even if they have no distinguished background as being recognized by fellow citizens, they could represent some amateur circles created in the neighborhoods of cities in support of international friendship. But the increasing professionalisation of sport competition has not made halt at the Olympic Games. Tennis stars known all over the world in terms of their tennis circuits compete at the Olympic Games just as professional players earn their money through sport and more so through lucrative advertisement contracts. In short, the Olympic Games is no longer what it should be in terms of laying the foundation for future observance of truce: an opportunity to make international friends and go beyond national borders in understanding the beauty but also plight of mankind. Instead the Olympic Games reinforce more than anything ‘Nationalism’ of its worst kind as if the strength (and wealth) of a nation depends upon how many medals its athletes win at the Games.

There is another, poetic reason. Giulio Stocchi points as to why poets are against such kind of competition. To him ‘war is just another type of competition but a very bloody one’. He reasons that even competition amongst poets should be avoided. The human spirit requires the ability to work together. It requires that people give recognition to one another as active human beings willing to take on the responsibility of citizenship in the world. That requires an awareness of each others’ needs and a way of dealing with thoughts and ideas that reflect a human spirit based on sensitivity.

Therefore, Gulio Stocchi concludes, poets should defend things at risk to be lost in the world created by the Olympic Games, one of those things being ‘sensitivity’. The human spirit without such sensitivity will not be able to perceive the needs of the others nor be able to guarantee them that they shall be well treated.

Hatto Fischer

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN

Athens August 2004

Postscript least it be forgotten:

From ‘The Iliad’

‘…send me forth now at the head of the Myrmidon host,

That I may be a light of hope to the Danaans.

And let me strap on my shoulders that armours of yours,

That the zealous Trojans may take me for you and quickly

Withdraw from the fighting. Then the battling, war-worn sons

Of Achaeans may have a chance to catch their breath –

Such chances in battle are few – and we who are fresh

May easily drive, with little more than our war-screams,

The exhausted Trojans away from the ships and the shelters

And back toward the city’

Such was his plea, poor childish

Fool that he was, for it was his own hard death

And doom for which he pleaded.

Homer, Greek, ? 9^th – 6^th C. B.C., from book 16, tr. Ennis Rees

Presentations by the Greek delegation at the Olympic Truce Meeting

Hatto Fischer: Olympic Truce in world context

Thomas Economacos: Promoting amongst children international friendship, happiness and peace through art and sports in Delphi’s Peace Camp

Vangelis Manaos : Statement

Marialena Stamboliadis: Cultural Olympiad

Dimitra Petanidou, Truce in everyday life in the city: the view of a non-believer.

Anthimos Dikmes, Another perspective or experiences in Komotini, Northern Greece connected with the Olympic Games held in Athens – there were none!

Fivos Stamboliadis, Olympic Truce and the Dialogue among the Religions

– may these presentations serve as a bridge between Athens 2004 and Torino 2006 while seeking continuity of the Olympic Spirit that prevailed in Athens when hosting city the Olympic Games in 2004 -

Olympic Truce in world context

Speech by Hatto Fischer at the Opening Session of the Olympic Truce Meeting, 23. February in Torino

I could say bon giorno, good morning, kali mera…these are already different ways of saying ‘hello’, but, given the question that was just posed, being German, we had of course just now the celebration of 60 years after the Auschwitz liberation. I just can say on behalf of Germans again ‘apology’, but of course an apology is not enough. When I visited Auschwitz in 1999, it was very important what our guide said to us: that the Auschwitz museum has a purpose that these things do not occur again, and if you look around in the world so many things are happening that make the aims and role of this museum to be still important.

I think when Daniele made an introduction of POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN, it could be a way of answering that question.

I think if you know Peter Weiss, Aesthetics of Resistance, a book which describes how Fascism made its way into daily life, then because of this: the human language was replaced by the language of command. People did not feel themselves as people; they had fear and gave power to authority which could do things which we never thought to be possible.

POIEIN KAI PRATTEIN is based on the realization: a major problem of society is the split of language, meaning, on the one hand you have the scientific, technological language while on the other there is the human, anthropological and cultural language.

Just take ‘energy’ and relate it to nuclear energy, then it has a specific meaning.

But if take a mother saying, “it takes a lot of energy to bring up a child”, then you know that these two terms of energy are not the same.

If you think about what is human language or rather about what gives human self consciousness a chance to articulate itself, then you go back to the Doctoral thesis of Marx, who examines what is the condition of human language. He pointed out, in order to be active in the world you need as well categories of creativity as much as categories of productivity.

Only if you can link the two, and that already means you know yourself the difference on how you are being addressed, or if someone addresses you as slave compared to addressing you with dignity to which the journalist referred to when speaking about children working already in mines and thinking of themselves as having no dignity due to all the ugliness around them, then the self conception of being human does mean something for our search for peace during the Olympic Games.

We have in our Greek delegation Fivos, Vangelis, Dimitra, Athrimos, and Marialena, so there is the question as to what can we contribute to this meeting. Perhaps we have one advantage, we had just experienced the Olympics in Athens, and I think it would be very important that together with Thomas Economacos who has been doing a lot of work in Delphi, in a peace camp, that we try to convey to you the experiences before, during and after the Olympic Games.

As you know the Olympic Truce at the Athens Games was suppressed by security concerns, and as a result impossible surveillance conditions were imposed. This was rather strange for Athens was considered until the Olympics as a safe city. Staggering changes in the statistics can illuminate the impact of that. While in Sydney they hired only 8 000 Police, in Athens there were 40 000. It expressed itself as well in the budget for security measures exceeding 1 Bill. Euro.

Indeed the Olympic Games as a global event impose very special conditions.

To give you one contrast: when I grew up in the Baverian hills and when we did some ski jumping we build our own jump, and the cows were our only spectators.

At the Olympics, if you look at the ski jump, then sport events are entities by themselves, a world by itself. In a bicycle race they streak past you in five seconds and the spectators are in a safety zone. The Olympics are an entity of their own, like a space ship

My own dream was always that I wanted to participate in the Olympics, why? because I thought participation would allow friendship.

We have problems with the Olympics because, as what previous speakers have said, there is over commercialization, doping, indeed many other aspects.

Above all we have nowadays only professional athletes and no longer amateurs.

One outcome of that is what we may discuss here: how to set limits to an over commercial drive? For this purpose we can compare the normal or professional Olympics with the Paralympic Games. I think the moment you have the Paralympic Games you have a different sensation.

It is interesting how people reflect themselves in so-called handicap people. I don’t know if you ever have seen a race with the blind person being led by another person; it is truly amazing what is happening in such a race!

I think the key word is that we all are disabled but we do not want to show it.

But we live in a world with wrong measures, and thus we say that we are not beautiful, like the child working in the mines, or that we are not disciplined enough, that we are not strong enough. So I think that if you look at the positive experiences of international relationships becoming visible on the streets, then I think if we use the Greek word ‘metron’ as a measure for what is possible, then we come to what everyone has been saying all along: what can be done so that peace is not an utopia, but can be realized?

To add a thought, I received this beautiful drawing of a child which it drew in Picasso’s atelier in Paris. The drawing shows a Palestine flag kissing an Israeli flag: a nose kiss. It was given to me half a year ago, that is well before the death of Arafat and what changes since then create hope in the Middle East. Dialog and debate are a part of that hope.

My simple formulation is, therefore, not just a question of what questions to ask, but are we able to ask the ‘hard question’?

The hard question is can we link what we think is Olympic Truce to peace? Peace is really the ability to ask further questions about this linkage without producing further violence, for you can be even violent in the way you pose your question.

In this regard Thomas Economacos has many experiences with peace work, that is on how to bring about such art forms that bring about such questions which lead to another discovery?

We have a huge problem due to the context of the world in which we are living in: We had the reference to the Olympic Truce Resolution but when the Athens Games started, there was immediately a press declaration by the United States that they are not bounded by the U.N. resolution because of the ongoing war in Iraq.

If you make a contrast between Kant’s search for the permanent peace, which was a philosophical effort, then we have a problem insofar as we are living in times of a ‘permanent war’.

And therefore the articulation of any Olympic Truce Resolution has to be questioned to what extent is that realistic due to the context we find ourselves to be in.

Thank you

Thomas Economacos

As we may all know the Greek word for Olympic Truce is ekecheiria. In Ancient Greece, when the city-stages were beset with conflict, the Oracle of Delphi was asked for a solution. The sage advice was that warriors should put their skill and effort into a noble set of athletic games and that sacred truce, or ekecheiria should be put into practice so that any wars or conflicts will be absent during this period.

All in peace is a program in which I have taken part as a volunteer – as art activities organizer. This program wishes to apply this same ancient principle of ekecheiria and create a model of how sports and artistic activities can be combined to further teamwork and co-operation between and within communities, thus contributing to an initiative towards peace today. During the All in Peace festival, children from different countries and cities, and religions are brought together in mixed teams. From the very beginning, unity and teamwork are emphasized over competition and victory. The goal of each competition is not to win in a traditional sense, but to bring out the best in oneself and others through the five disciplines of the Greek Pentathlon: discus, javelin, wrestling, running, and jumping, all designed to instill a love of balance, moderation, confidence, beauty, and justice. In addition to the games of the Greek Pentathlon, the youth engage in music, art, and poetry composition. The goal is that the All in Peace festival will serve as a model to be duplicated in other contexts to inspire actions aimed at healing the wounds of lives ravaged by war, ethnic conflict, mistrust and misunderstanding. Since 2000 when the program started two Allinpeace festival were held: one in July 2001 Olympia-Delphi and a second one in July 2003 Delphi Greece.

Statement by Vangelis Manaos

Before the meeting

My name is Vangelis Manaos and I am one of the members of the Greek Delegation. I am a doctor and specialize in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

During the last Olympic Games in Athens 2004 I was a volunteer in the medical department and I worked as an athletic care doctor.

This was my first experience of a global feeling of a common origin for all the persons that participated in an event like this regardless of their nationality, religion or color. Inspired by the oath of Hippocrates that makes no discrimination in offering health, being responsible for the health of so many different people in a world event was the initial challenge for me. But I could never imagine the sensation of fulfillment that I would acquire by contributing to a step towards world peace, understanding and acceptance of others.

In my opinion, if metaphorically there was a Pandora’s box for the human kind that would contain only the good things and not the bad ones, one of its most essential contents would be the spirit of world peace that derives from the Olympic Games. Maybe this sounds a little bit romantic but during the Games it is a reality. I experienced it and I think it made me a better person.

Having in my mind still the vivid images of the international joy that was obvious under the summer sky of Athens last summer, being interested about a meeting concerning the establishment of the Olympic Truce is not strange. If there is one way of achieving such a difficult goal as Olympic Truce, this road passes through the youth of the world that can determine with its actions the future of this planet. I really wanted to be a part of this effort.

In an era that civil wars were a part of daily life in ancient Greece, our ancestors had the sophisticated idea of the “Olympiaki Ekecheiria” (Olympic Truce) meaning “raising of the hands” (that is ceasing every act of violence). In times that war in some Greek city-countries was adored as a God (Mars) and the children were raised since their eighth year as a soldier (Sparta), the Olympic Truce was adhered to nevertheless in a most decent way.

In our era that has even a “Magna Charta” of Human Rights, signed by almost all the countries of the world, keeping Olympic Truce during these 16 days of the Games sounds “romantic”. A paradox of our “civilization” that derives from the fact that technological development was not followed by the analogous cultural elevation.

Our times have an important advantage compared to the times of ancient Greece. Nowadays we live in a world that tends to be something like a “global village”. While in ancient times every civilization was more or less “autonomous”, modern civilizations affect each other in a way that interactions between countries have an immediate effect on the world economy for instance.

Therefore, it is up to human kind to take advantage of this modern-era privilege of globalization in order to be directed to complete peace and prosperity even for the most distant places of our planet. A first step towards this goal could be the respect of Olympic Truce.

The establishment of the International Committee of Olympic Truce by the International Olympic Committee is an essential action that grants a special value to this try. In the same way, United Nations can create a sector dealing with the respect of Olympic Truce by all of its member countries aiming to expand the boundaries of Olympic Truce beyond its “sport” features to its “social” character.

Also, an effective initiative would be for the candidate cities of the Olympic Games to present their “Olympic Truce” profile together with their technical profile in order to have the honor to host the Olympic Games. If this presupposition can not be accomplished by a candidate, odds will not be at his side.

Since Olympic Truce is present every time in the level of the participants in the Olympic Games, both athletes and spectators, we have a proof that this truce can be established in a country-based level too. All it is needed is constant vigilance expressed by meetings like this in Turin and political will.

After the meeting in Torino

Being a member of the Greek Delegation for the Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting in Turin was a real honor for me. In the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 I had worked as a volunteer doctor and I was looking forward to share my experiences with the persons that will get involved in the preparation of the Winter Olympic Games of Turin 2006.

As I am already 31 years old and having experienced a real example of Olympic Spirit during the Games I was a little bit prejudiced about the way that younger persons than me without previous participation in the preparation of such a great event could affect my formed opinion about the establishment and maintenance of Olympic Truce. Fortunately, I was so wrong!

First of all, the participants in this meeting formed a real multicultural mosaic of different mentalities and experiences. It is so interesting to discover that young participants coming from places distant from Turin like Afghanistan or Mexico were inspired by the same notion of world peace and understanding and really want to contribute in the achievement of this goal.

Especially, participants coming from places where violence is a part of daily life like Israel and Palestine or places where old hates still raise walls between nations like in the two parts of Cyprus, really helped us all to understand that Olympic Truce should be considered as a necessity. As Jad from Palestine stated even a single day of Olympic Truce would be a great achievement.

The scenic of the meeting in a beautiful hotel in the heart of the Italian Alps was the perfect environment for exchanging ideas and having fruitful dialogues over the different proposals. The organizing committee deserves our compliments for offering us this unique opportunity of experiencing how a place that will host the Winter Olympic Games can be.

Apart from all the discussions and meetings that took place there were some things that will remain in my memory as obvious examples of what Olympic Truce can achieve. I cannot forget the cooperation between the participants that were responsible for creating the big poster that will show to everyone through an artistic point of view how we perceive the idea of Olympic Truce. Also, the little play that boys and girls from Palestine, Israel, Rwanda, Erythrea and Italy presented, every one in his own language, really touched us because we realized once more that we are all one, we have the same fears, doubts and needs for understanding and friendship.

Meetings like these start with a lot of dreams and expectations. Some of them maybe will be fulfilled, some of them maybe not. The previous experiences of the Olympic Games where we all lived in a spirit of world peace and friendship that was not “infected” by discriminations due to color, sex, religion or political believes can show us the way. We don’t speak the same language but the Youth of the World has proved that it can communicate in its own way. Why don’t we try to do Olympic Truce one of our common languages for the future?

Cultural Olympiad by Marialena Stamboliades

The Olympic Games contributed a lot to the promotion of the new face of Athens and that truly remained unforgettable to those who experienced it. The whole Olympic preparation of Greece for this major event was aiming not only to a smooth, successful and safe organization of the Games but also to the creation of many different cultural inflammations for the Greeks and all the foreign visitors. During the Olympic Games all the visitors had the opportunity to taste and enjoy a different side of Greece, a cheerful and multicultural Athens which was indeed the center of the cultural events. Day and night Athens and other districts in the whole country were vibrant with a great range of intellectual and recreational events and activities. The effects were amazing as many neighborhoods around the city were shown forth and presented a renewed face due to the presence of all the visitors, especially the young people. In such a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere, the communication and spreading of believes and ideas, concerning the spirit of the Olympic Games, was much more easy. The truth is that everybody felt that ideas such as the spirit of emulation, friendship and peace, as these were promoted through the wide range of cultural events, are notions that see no boarders and nationalities but on the contrary break through our hearts, our senses and consequently influence the way we think and live.

In general, every city and every country that takes on to organize the greatest sports event in the world, Olympic Games is expected to showcase its cultural physiognomy together with the finest and most genuine option of its civilization.

For 21^st century Greeks, the Cultural Olympiad is not just only a big Olympic festival. It is not only an opportunity to show off our tourist resorts and products or to serve a source of entertainment for people who visit Greece. It simply is not a selling ploy.

For 21^st century Greeks, as head towards the Olympic Games is

an international institution
a global message
an open invitation to creativity
a bridge for peace and reconciliation amongst all nations in the world.

Cultural Olympiad is a permanent ongoigg institution based on Ancient Olympia a guardian of the ideals of fair competition, creativity and the universality of humanity. It is very important to mention the worldwide aspect of the message of the cultural Olympiad. It is a message of peace and social cohesion, a message that links tradition to modernism and modernism to postmodernism. The fundamental idea of the 2001-2004 Cultural Olympiad is the universality of civilization.

Culture as a bridge to peace

On a world scale, culture cannot but be a culture of peace, whilst at local level, culture has to embody social cohesion. It is imperative that our culture also encompasses the culture of what is other or different, what has been excluded to the margins. Constant and concerted efforts are needed in order to approach culture not as the spark of war but as a bridge to peace.

Plan of the cultural Olympiad

During the period between 1997 and 1999, the cooperation agreement with UNESCO was signed, and the International Foundation for the cultural Olumpiad was set up under whose aegis the Cultural Olympiad Organising Committee performs its function. All specific events that are part of the planning weather they take place in Greece or abroad are organized by bodies that have the necessary infrastructure and experience such as State Theaters, State Orchestras, the Greek national Opera, the Athens and Thessaloniki Concert Halls, the European Cultural Center of Delphi, the National Gallery, the state and National Museums of Contemporary Art, the National Cultural Network of Cities, and the “Domain of Culture” institution in general, the Greek festival, the Foundation for Hellenic Culture and other prestigious cultural foundations etc

EVENTS

1.”Domain of Culture’’

2.Important Exhibitions

3.Great Music and Opera Events

4.Cinema, Audiovisual Creations, Digital Art

5.Other aspects of culture(Alternative Forms of art and Social Cohesion)

6.Folk Art

7.International Students Olympiad\International Olympiad in Informatics

8. “Cotinos”-the Cultural Olympiad Awards

9. International “Pathways’ of the C. Ol. (influenced by international peace cooperation, philosophical and political thinking, environment protection, literature, music, visual art, architecture, theater, dance, cultural and sports journalism.)

These events pivot on the core themes of the cultural Olympiad like peace, social cohesion, tradition, modernism, information society. The events cannot possibly be competitive by dint of their nature. Nevertheless, there is room for sportsmanlike competition between young artists or young scientists.

Main exhibition activities

1.Cultural Millenia. This exhibition organized at a large number of locations around the world and were about great eras of human civilization with an emphasi on universality. It seek to highlight the classical, medieval and renaissance elements that are common in all cultural tradition. Each period was brought alive through genuine archeological artifacts, through references to the evolution of oral and written language, to “logos” and myth in general, through audio-visual material and digital artistic creations, references to music and to evolution of the art of dance.

The exhibition were supported by lectures, symposia, publications and audio visual material which were accessible (internet)by all interested partiers, schools, universities, research centers and the Greek diaspora .

2.”The Human Body, 4000+2004 Years of Art ”

This exhibition portraied the human body as a source of inspiration and a point of reference in the history of schools of art, through works of art, accounts, and audiovisual material.

3. “Hours of Byzantium” were run in Athens, Thessaloniki, Mystras in conjuction with the important exhibition of Byzantine Icons that was organized in Berlin.

4.”From Stone to Hard Disk” about history of writing.

Theatrical Olympiad

The ancient theaters in Epidaurus, Delphi, Ancient Olympia, Dion, Maroneia, Philippi, Thassos, Dodoni, Odeion of Herodes Atticus, the modern Thessalonikis Damari Theater,

Pivot on 1. archetypical myths in ancient tragedies and the way they are perceived by 21^st century theatrical and dance art. 2.common characteristics of great theatrical traditions in the East and the West.

Similar organizing arrangements were being made with regard to dance, in collaboration with Greek National Opera Ballet, the state school of dance, the National Theater of Nothern Greece Dance Theater and with subsidized dance groups(inspired by the archetypal myths of Greek tragedy)

Music:

“Lysistrate” is a music (Thedorakis) and communication event that combines the messages of peace, antiwar action and woman’s political and social role. Its classical form is unquestionable contemporary, whilst humour is given an instrumental role.

Opera at the site of the Ancient Stadium of Delphi
“Opera of the earth”
“Orchestra of Colours” (setting to music the Olympic Hymns)
the Thessaloniki Film Festival
the Documentary Festival
the short Film Festival of Drama
the Ancient Olympia Children’s Festival
an International digital art festival. 1.subject of “Virtual as Real and Real as Virtual: A truth Game” 2. Children Designing the World” ( video clips, documentaries, web site, future world through imagination)
Folk Art. In collaboration with International Council Organizations for Forklore Festivals and Folk Art. Music and dance expressing authenticity and continuity as a common element in all tradition. Folk groups from all over the word will “compose” a hymn to diversity and peace through the common museum motifs present in all cultural tradition.

Truce in everyday life in the city: the view of a non-believer by Dimitra Petanidou

Believing or not in the spirit of the modern Olympic Games, supporting or not the idea they represent and the goals being achieved during them, there is something about them that one cannot put in doubt indiscreetly; that is the tremendous influence that the Games act upon the everyday rhythm of life of the city that has undertaken them.

Apart from the tremendous amount of publicity and worldwide attention that the city enjoys, as well as the large numbers of tourists that overrun the stadiums and every inch of the city centre, something arouses that is all of the above and much more than the above, a certain kind of feeling that overtakes every single person being present, even the non-believers, like me.

Even if a “feeling” is not easily communicable, if I could use a few words to describe it, those would be universality, participation and multi-culture.; and surely these words are of greater value when spoken not from a visitor but from a citizen who was actually working in the city centre during that time (August is the most popular month for vacations in Greece). As far as I am concerned, the Olympic Games in Athens were the most unhoped- for experience, and as I can see it now from a certain distance, no one, even the most devout supporters, had any idea of what it would be really like living it. It was not just the Games, it was not just the Greek pride flourishing at the centre of the universe and it certainly wasn’t for the formal pomp and circumstance that the people of Athens had little idea about. It was something deeper, something inner, something wider: it was Ermou str., the most central and commercial pedestrian zone, crowded with people from all races, from all colours, from all religions walking around, gazing at the windows all holding colorful flags. It was Monastiraki square, where people were gathering to celebrate after the Games, where people from Mexico were drinking ouzo while Greeks were drinking tequila and all of them taking photos to keep the moment alive…

And above all it was Athens as we had never seen her before. It was the capital of civilization, city of gentle citizens, cozy host for thousands of visitors, rigged out in her best without losing her naturalness, maintaining attractive albeit her antiquity. Athens seemed to find her real self by pushing forward her prons and putting “make up” on her ugly details, by respecting herself and the citizens, by viewing arts (music, street theatre) as indispensable ingredient of quality of life. The city of Athens gave the stimulus and her people gave the reply. Everybody, from the man next door to the Prime Minister, overwhelmed by the booze of being present, became a cell of the living organism of participation.

This is actually the point where truce in everyday life was achieved: when the mere action of participating (even by being present) surmounts everything else, when the feeling of togetherness bridges all kinds of diversity, when stereotypes are diminished by the power of communication. Even I, a non-believer, a skeptic, could not help letting myself enjoy certain moments of truce during that time, could not help realizing that yes, apart from the superhuman- hyper-athletic side of the Games, their human face still exists, even if it is not on the spotlight. Events like this meeting here help us to reform priorities over what is really important about the Games and find the techniques to spread one element that we need so much and we are so close to forget it: truce and tolerance between nations, religions, profits in all levels of human activity, and most of all, in everyday life.

FOLLOW-UP

It’s very difficult to try to put into words moments of intense experiences and interactions, moments that gave birth to feelings and they, in turn, lead to smiles and, sometimes, to melancholy. The Olympic Truce Resolution Meeting in Turin was, of course, a meeting in all its professional sense: strict timetable, lots of work and presentations, very little time for sightseeing and relaxation. Above all, though, it was a meeting of youth, of restless youngsters from 40 different countries, a gathering of cultures trying to examine closely an important issue of Human History: the concept of Olympic Truce.

Divided into several work-groups, each one of them having its own topic, we started hard work from the first day at Pracatinat, a wonderful place in a snowy white side of the Alps. The work-groups were formulated in such a way, so that people from different countries participated equally in each one of them. The work-groups became the land where seeds of dialogue and fertile disagreements were cultivated: the rooms were filled with lively conversations, voices that expressed different points of view and different lifetime experiences, ears that were thirsty to listen to more truth, minds that could not help but being opened.

From the way I see it, the meeting succeeded in its most challenging and demanding task: the cultivation of truce inside the work-groups, where sometimes opinions were getting a bit stronger, where Turks and Greeks, Israelis and Palestinians were trying to find a common ground of two-way communication and of respectful co-existence. An attentive listener of the conversations taking place could identify a “double-voice”, the meaning of Olympic Truce coming from an Italian or French and the one coming from a Palestinian or from a Turk-/Greek- Cypriot. These differentiated aspects were the most valuable lesson I took from the meeting because they brought to light a difference in order to be communicated about and to be bridged, not a gap to divide us into two sides. The different types of meaning actually represented other types of experiences that we need to have more information about, in order to be able to get into another one’s shoes, to listen and to understand not only the position of the Other, but also ours.

This type of non-violent communication took flesh not only through words, but also through arts and entertainment: when, for example, the two boys from Afghanistan joined the party, being shy and extrovert at the same time, when Jad from Palestine and a girl from Israel helped each other in order to create a drawing, when Ali from Turkey and Fivos from Greece worked hard together for the composition of the Olympic Truce Resolution text.

All the participants of the meeting hope that this new Olympic Truce Resolution will be accepted and respected by the Officials, not only because we worked hard for it, but also because we experienced ourselves and enjoyed every and each word of it, we tasted the “truce” ourselves and its essence remains alive inside us. We saw the spirit of Truce be working around us, therefore we cannot pretend being blind anymore; let’s hope that we won’t be alone.

Olympic Truce and the Dialogue among the Religions by Fivos Stamboliadis

The dialogue among religions for the establishment of the international peace and the confrontation of the problems of the modern world is as important as the Olympic Truce. The traumatic experiences of the past, the isolation and the introversion of the monotheistic religions feed the competition between and the intolerance amongst the people.

In our time when different people with totally different beliefs and culture live together under the same government, any conflict with religious ‘color’ provoke more than ever reactions with international consequences. The terrorist attack in New York is a very characteristic example of this new situation. A terrorist attack misinterpreted as a clash of civilizations irritating the skepticism of the Christians against any Muslim and from the other side increasing the fanaticism of the Fundamentalists against Christians.

In this very critical moment that we live the effort to achieve Truce during the Games, this gives a great opportunity to the different religions to come closer.

The dialogue among religions shortens the distance and creates conditions for closer cooperation. The experience until now has proven that during these dialogues improper or intentional misinterpretations can be referred to as dogmas and hence be questioned accordingly. For dialogue helps the purification of the historical relations from any superstition or any one sided interpretation of past experiences and actions. Previous efforts for dialogue certify that whenever we dissociated the religions from any political, economic or other expediency, they had in their internal traditions very wide abilities to promote not only religious tolerance but also peaceful coexistence amongst people. As a crucial element in each civilization, this tolerance opens new roads for cooperation at many levels. Culture, education, art are only some of them. Given the opportunity for exchanges (political, economical) in every aspect of life, this will bring about such parameters that determine the present and the future.

***

Η ιδέα της ολυμπιακής εκεχειρίας προέρχεται από την βαθιά πεποίθηση ότι ο αθλητισμός και το ολυμπιακό ιδεώδες μπορούν να συνεισφέρουν σημαντικά στην προώθηση της ειρήνης σε τοπικό αλλά και σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο. Η ολυμπιακή εκεχειρία έχει τις ρίζες τις σε μια αρχαία ελληνική παράδοση σύμφωνα με την οποία όλες οι εχθροπραξίες σταματούσαν κατά την διάρκεια των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων. Αιώνες μετά η ιδέα αυτή αναβιώνει εκφράζοντας την επιθυμία της ανθρωπότητας για την δημιουργία ενός κόσμου που να βασίζεται στις αρχές του δικαίου, του ανθρωπισμού και της ειρηνικής επίλυσης των διαφορών. Η περίοδος των Ολυμπιακών αγώνων αλλά και το χρονικό διάστημα πριν και μετά την λήξη τους παρέχουν την ευκαιρία για συνεργασία και διάλογο στην βάση των αρχών αυτών με σκοπό την εξεύρεση σταθερών λύσεων.

Στο πνεύμα αυτό του αμοιβαίου σεβασμού δημιουργείται μια εξέχουσας σημασίας δυναμική προσέγγισης των μεγάλων μονοθεϊστικών θρησκειών. Ο διάλογος μεταξύ των θρησκειών μπορεί να αποδειχτεί εξίσου αποτελεσματικός με την Ολυμπιακή εκεχειρία για την επίτευξη της παγκόσμιας ειρήνης και την αντιμετώπιση των σύγχρονων προβλημάτων.

Οι τραυματικές εμπειρίες του παρελθόντος , η απομονωτική εσωστρέφεια των μεγάλων μονοθεϊστικών θρησκειών τροφοδοτούν τον θρησκευτικό ανταγωνισμό , την μισαλλοδοξία . Στην εποχή μας όπου πλέον άτομα διαφορετικών θρησκειών και πολιτισμών συμβιώνουν κάτω απ’την ίδια κρατική εξουσία οποιαδήποτε τοπική σύγκρουση με θρησκευτική ή όχι απόχρωση αποκτά μεγάλες διαστάσεις και προκαλεί αντιδράσεις με παγκόσμιες πλέον προεκτάσεις. Είναι πολύ χαρακτηριστικές οι παγκόσμιες συνέπειες του χτυπήματος της 11^ηςΣεπτεμβρίου όπου μια τρομοκρατική ενέργεια παρερμηνεύτηκε ως σύγκρουση θρησκειών εξάπτοντας τον άκριτο σκεπτικισμό των Χριστιανών ενάντια κάθε λογής Μουσουλμάνων . Απ’την άλλη μεριά το καίριο αυτό χτύπημα και τα μέτρα για την καταπολέμηση της τρομοκρατίας τροφοδότησαν το μίσος των φονταμεταλιστών Μουσουλμάνων.

Στην σημερινή κρίσιμη περίοδο η προσπάθεια επίτευξης εκεχειρίας κατά την διάρκεια των αγώνων δίνει την ευκαιρία στις θρησκείες να έρθουν ποιο κοντά.. Ο διάλογος αυτός μικραίνει τις αποστάσεις και δημιουργεί τις προϋποθέσεις για συνεργασία. Η μέχρι τώρα εμπειρία έδειξε ότι στους διαθρησκευτικούς διάλογους αποφεύγονται οι καταχρηστικές προσεγγίσεις ή οι σκόπιμες παρερμηνείες της διδασκαλίας ενώ αντίθετα αποδεσμεύονται οι ιστορικές σχέσεις απ’τις παλιές προλήψεις και τις μονομερείς ερμηνείες των εμπειριών του παρελθόντος. Οι εμπειρίες επιβεβαιώνουν την διαπίστωση ότι οι θρησκείες αν αποσυνδεθούν από εθνικές , πολιτικές ή άλλες σκοπιμότητες, διαθέτουν στην εσωτερική τους παράδοση ευρύτατες δυνατότητες όχι μόνο για θρησκευτική ανοχή αλλά και συνεργασία

Η θρησκεία αποτελεί βασικό στοιχείο κάθε λαού. Η άρση της μισαλλοδοξίας σ’αυτόν τον σημαντικό τομέα διανοίγει παράθυρα για ευρύτερη συνεργασία στον πολιτισμό,την παιδεία και την τέχνη και συνιστά επιπλέον προνομιακό δίαυλο ανάπτυξης και ανταλλαγής πολιτικών , οικονομικών στοιχείων , παραμέτρων που καθορίζουν το παρόν και το μέλλον.

Η ευθύνη της πνευματικής και πολιτικής ηγεσίας είναι μεγάλη. Η ειρηνική συνύπαρξη είναι αξιακή αρχή της διδασκαλίας των θρησκειών και επιτακτική ανάγκη των πιστών. Οι θρησκευτικοί ηγέτες ως εμπνευστές και πνευματικοί καθοδηγητές των πιστών πρέπει να αρθούν στο ύψος των περιστάσεων. Με την εξουσία που διαθέτουν μπορούν να εμποδίσουν την χρησιμοποίηση της θρησκείας για ξένες προς την αποστολή της σκοπιμότητες αλλά και να εμπνεύσουν στους πιστούς τον σεβασμό της θρησκευτικής ιδιαιτερότητας.

Torino Winter Olympic Games

TOROC

The success of the Torino 2006 Olympic Games is founded on the pact between the urban and mountain territories. The challenge is to set up a great edition of the Games that will leave a legacy of progress and a new identity for the territory. At its candidacy, Torino 2006 elected to make a strong ethical content one of the distinguishing and decisive elements of the organization of the Olympic Winter Games. This attention to principles and values gave origin to an ethical pact that renewed the strategic and structural relationship between the Alpine territory and this stately European city.

The experiences of the Olympic Games of the past teach us that there are two types of Olympic Legacy.

The structures and infrastructures built and set up for the Games, that will afterwards provide new urban services and facilities for sports; new amenities to enhance and develop the city and the mountains of the Olympic territory.
The intangible legacy that includes all the values, the knowledge and the experiences that a great event like the Olympic Games generates throughout the territory.

The TOROC has reinforced the significance and values of the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Ethics and the fundamental principles contained in them, through some fundamental measures:

The Values Committee. Set up in the autumn of 2001, this group is made up of local exponents of various associations and organizations, such as Amnesty International, UNICEF, ILO, the Unione Industriale (Employers’ Association), the Chamber of Commerce, and the trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL, who worked together to draft the “Charter of Intents”.

The Charter of Intents.

Approved on May 16^th 2002 by the TOROC Board of Directors, this paper identifies the ethical, social and environmental principles that the Committee intends to follow in the functioning of its activities. As described in its methods of application, the intention of the TOROC is to share the Charter with public and private subjects involved in the organisation of the Olympic Games to guarantee the necessary transparency.

With the adoption of its Charter of Intents, the Organising Committee for the XX Olympic Winter Games Torino 2006 reaffirms the importance and value of the Olympic Charter, the IOC Code of Ethics and the fundamental principles found therein.
The words and spirit of these solemn statements are closely linked to the core principles of promoting and protecting human rights, as set forth in the historic Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and subsequent treaties and conventions, as well as in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Given the new global scope of human activities, human rights tools have been implemented on a more widespread basis over the years to establish a basic set of common rules and universal and indivisible principles; hence, in addition to the fundamental right of freedom, the recognition of economic and social rights as principles of sustainable development and environmental compatibility.
On 16 May 2002 TOROC’s Board of Directors approved the Charter of Intents, a document that specifies the Committee’s principles in the carrying out of its activities. The Charter was drafted with the participation of the Value Committee which was established in the Autumn of 2001. Co-ordinated by then-Vice President of TOROC Rinaldo Bontempi, the Committee members included local representatives from various associations and organisations, such as Amnesty International, UNICEF, ILO, the Industrial Union, the Chamber of Commerce, and trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL.
The Charter of Intents rests upon the recognition that the quality of the Olympic heritage is one of the essential aspects of the event. This commitment by TOROC toward ethical, environmental and social issues has already been voiced by the Bid Committee in the Code of Conduct during the Candidature stage.

The IOC has expressed its approval and appreciation for the Charter, which was drafted under the scrutiny of the Ethics Commission, chaired by Senegalese judge Kιba Mbaye.
On 22 March 2004, two new articles, Solidarity and Culture, were added to the Charter of Intents.

Principles in the Charter of Intents

Responsibility
Non-discrimination and freedom
Life, health and safety
Solidarity
Children
Culture
Sustainability and environment
Integrity and transparency
Information
Participation

As defined in the terms of application, the implementation of the Charter undergoes a series of concrete actions, which include presenting the Charter to TOROC’s public and private partners with timely communication and awareness; promoting and overseeing model activities through the execution of projects such as those in the field of environment, and sustainability, and in relations with business partners, education, volunteers, interfaith dialogue, and Olympic heritage; and applying specific monitoring and control tools (the Torino 2006 Sustainability Report_2003, for example).

The “Ethical and Social Values in Sport” Project
The “Ethical and Social Values in Sport” project was launched in November 2003 and promoted jointly by TOROC, CONI and the European Olympic Committee (EOC).
Implemented mainly during 2004—declared by the Council and the European Parliament as the “European Year of Education Through Sport”—the project’s main objective is sharing the contents of the Charter of Intents and the experience of Torino 2006 as the first organising committee to adopt a document that includes the ethical, social and environmental principles that it intends to follow in the carrying out of its Olympic Programme.
The dissemination of the Charter occurs through active participation on TOROC’s part in events of international scope (EOC General Assemblies, the inauguration of “European Year of Education Through Sport”, meeting with organising committees of the next Olympic Games, etc) and through active involvement in discussions and debates on issues included in the Charter.
The results of the Project will be included in a final report, “The Olympic Games and Social Responsibility in Sport” to be presented in Brussels in February 2005 in front of the newly-elected members of the European Parliament and Commission.

The Project is co-financed by the European Commission’s Employment and Social Affairs Directorate General, under the budget line “Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue”.

Interfaith Committee

The IOC Host City Contract, specifically in Appendix D – “IOC Olympic Villages Guidelines”, instructs that the Host City should undertake to provide facilities and spaces dedicated to meditation and worship and centres for the different religious denominations.
In order to organise and offer an effective service of spiritual assistance inside the Olympic Villages of Torino, Sestriere and Bardonecchia, the TOROC following the IOC indications has set up an “Interfaith Committee” (Comitato Interreligioso) that will group the representatives of the major world religions: Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Moslem and Buddhist.
The representatives who make up the Committee are asked to collaborate in a spirit of parity and reciprocity in the Olympic areas, respecting the religious and moral convictions of the single members.

The Committee is made up of 8 members; of these seven represent the major religions (three Christian: Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox; one Moslem, one Buddhist, one Hindu, and one Jewish.) and a representative of the TOROC.
The Committee is chaired by the TOROC through its president.
The number of the members of the Committee was decided considering the influence of the different religious denominations on the Olympic territory and the relative weight of the faiths professed by the athletes and by the members of the Olympic Family who will be present at the Olympic Winter Games of Torino 2006.
The representatives of the great religions are appointed directly by the highest levels of the national religious institutions.
The operation of the Committee will be disciplined by regulations that will be approved by the parties.
To enable all religions to take part in the activities of the Committee, an Assembly of Religions is implemented; it has a consultancy function, and includes representatives of other religions, based on special regulations drawn up by the Interfaith Committee.

The Committee is set up to handle the following activities:

Spiritual aid inside the Olympic Villages

Ensure a service of spiritual support to athletes and members of the Olympic family in collaboration with the religious representatives of the participating national teams. The Committee will define the modalities for providing the services and will select the ministers of faith for the different religions.
Collaborate to define, during the planning phases, the criteria for the realization and furnishing of the spaces to be set aside for worship and meditation.

Events and manifestations outside the Olympic Villages

Promote the organization of manifestations, conferences, cultural events aimed at building up relationships of reciprocal understanding among the faiths, to foster dialogue between these and make known their cultural and historical legacy, in the period preceding and during the Games.
Set up a plan of communication and information.

SKETCHES –

November 2004, Volume 1
The International Child Art Foundation Newsletter

UTOPIA EXHIBITION OPENS IN MUNICH!
ICAF introduces children's utopias to the Utopia Station project. Young artists from across the globe gathered in Munich to celebrate the exhibit openings at Haus der Kunst and the Odeonsplatz subway station.
http://www.icaf.org/news/newsfiles/200410280001.html

ART AND SPORTS IN A YELLOW HOUSE
The children at Yellow House, ICAF's Program Partner in Malaysia, are getting ready for the Arts Olympiad with some serious soccer.
http://www.icaf.org/resources/partners/malaysia/malaysia.html

MY CITY'S SCENES AND SOUNDS
UNESCO, one of ICAF's Educational Parters, has created an online forum for Young Digital Creators to share a vision of their city, employing digital sounds and images. The website also offers instructions for teachers hoping to implement this project in the classroom.
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=18446&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC

WHAT'S NEW AT ICAF.ORG
Creative gifts for the Holiday season! Purchase ChildArt magazine subscriptions or pick posters and lithographs for nurseries, offices, and homes. Check out the amazing greeting cards!
http://www.childartgallery.org

CREATING PEACE THROUGH ART AND SPORT
ICAF's Peace through Art & Sport is the lead article in the current issue of SchoolArts. One of the leading magazines for art teachers, the November 2004 issue of SchoolArts focuses on 'transformation' and includes an article written by Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq of ICAF.
http://www.davis-art.com/schoolarts/index.asp

ARTS OLYMPIAD LESSON PLAN ARRIVES
The Arts Olympiad Lesson Plan is now online! Is your child participating?
U.S. Version - http://www.icaf.org/programs/artsolympiad/ao2004-2007/3rdao-lessonplan.pdf
International Version - http://www.icaf.org/programs/artsolympiad/ao2004-2007/3rdao-lessonplanintl.pdf

As part of Children's Charities of America, ICAF takes part in the Combined Federal Campaign under "Child Art Foundation, International" CFC # 2741. Please click here to make an online donation:
http://www.icaf.org/getinvolved/donate.html
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Rachel Lau - SKETCHES Editor
International Child Art Foundation
1350 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.530.1000 - phone
202.530.1080 - fax
www.icaf.org
media@icaf.org

[1] Taken from Kathimerini, English Edition as part of the International Herald Tribune, Saturday – Sunday, August 14 – 15, 2004

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Olympic Truce Meeting in Torino, 23 - 27 Feb. 2005