Matters of Life and Death
April 2004
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
Building a Culture of Peace Exhibition
Under-Secretary-General Chowdhury (center) joining the ribbon-cutting with young guests
"Building a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World," an exhibition cohosted by SGI-USA, opened at the visitors' lobby of the UN headquarters building in New York on February 4.
At the opening, UN Under-Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chowdhury stated that tomorrow's world will be a better place if youth grow up internalizing a culture of peace. He also introduced a message from SGI President Ikeda, which stressed that a culture of peace is not a distant dream, but begins in our own hearts, in the effort to foster the spirit of respect for diversity and caring for others.
Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams also spoke at the opening reception which featured songs by the chorus of the UN International School and a performance by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist Larry Coryell, bassist Buster Williams, drummer Terri Lynn Carrington and flutist Nestor Torres, members of the International Committee of Artists for Peace (ICAP). The exhibition ran until February 27 and drew many school groups and young people in particular to visit the UN for the first time.
The UN showing of this exhibition was a joint venture of SGI-USA with the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), the permanent missions to the UN of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Republic of Mozambique and Tuvalu, and the International Committee of Artists for Peace.
In December 2002, Under-Secretary-General Chowdhury delivered the keynote address at an event sponsored by SGI-USA, ICAP and local community groups in South Florida at SGI-USA’s Florida Nature and Culture Center, on the theme of "Building a Culture of Peace: Moving from Conflict to Dialogue." He spoke of the importance of the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). (In the late 1990s, then-Ambassador Chowdhury was instrumental in the concept's adoption by the global community represented by the United Nations.)
Peace in Daily Life
On that occasion, SGI-USA representatives were moved by the principles enunciated by the culture of peace and convinced that this expression describes in straightforward, understandable language what members of the SGI do in their religious activities as well as in daily life as responsible citizens. It was also clear that the principles of building a culture of peace were universally accessible to people everywhere. They planned to create an educational exhibit that would inspire viewers to awaken to and unleash their innate peace-building potential.
Ian McIlraith of SGI-USA comments: "We decided to headline the eight areas of action which the UN defined for the International Year and the Decade, including education, respect for human rights, equality between women and men and the free flow of information, as well as international peace and security. We also felt the seven paths to peace concept outlined in SGI President Ikeda's book For the Sake of Peace would be a good core element." The remainder of the exhibit showcases individuals; from so-called ordinary people to children and Nobel Peace Laureates who are making a difference, big or small, in their immediate environments, neighborhoods, communities and societies.
Ian explains why the exhibition was prepared at this time: "The United States has been fairly aggressively pursuing a hard-power approach to international relations in recent years. We felt we needed to insert some viable alternatives to this approach into the national dialogue."
Empowerment
The exhibition aims to awaken each viewer to recognize themselves as a major protagonist in the drama of building a culture of peace. So many messages today disempower people, making them feel more and more helpless to change the trends they see around the world through the mass media. The exhibit is intended to counteract that feeling for its viewers.
An earlier version of this exhibit debuted at the annual World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) in May 2003 at the World Trade Center in Barcelona, Spain. It served as a backdrop for a conference on building a culture of peace at Columbia University in New York City in August. Then it appeared at the annual Club of Rome meeting in Amman, Jordan, at the invitation of H.R.H. El Hassan bin Talal, current president of The Club of Rome, in October, before it opened at the Graduate School of Education Library at Harvard University in November.
The exhibition banner outside the UN building
Future showings include university settings, and anywhere it can be seen by a significant population and inject its message into the American bloodstream. A location on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., is being sought, and, after additional locations in New York, it will appear at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Michigan in April.
The reaction so far has been positive. Visitors who themselves coordinate or manage peace-building movements invariably inquire about the exhibit's availability. The exhibition was designed to be very graphically oriented and uses bright colors and lively images to attract young viewers. To engage children in particular, children's art and essays are featured in the exhibit.
One popular panel in the exhibit is called "My Dream for Peace" where viewers can leave their own statement on peace before leaving the exhibit.
School Visits
Educators in the New York area created a teacher's manual, lesson plans and a student pamphlet to accompany the exhibition. Peer hosts were trained and encouraged to choose even one quotation from the exhibition and use that as the basis for small-group discussion with visiting students. A total of 1,000 children from New York City and Westchester schools visited.
Ian adds: "We hope that viewers will realize the significance of their existence and live with a heightened awareness that they do affect their surroundings, regardless of their intent, and that, therefore, to have a positive peace-building effect is their prerogative. Fundamentally, we want to celebrate the opportunities that exist for every human being to contribute to a culture of peace. It's a very powerful concept with limitless possibilities."
