Politics of Being in the Global forum of the UN Alliance Of Civilization

Last week I was invited to participate to the 9 th Global forum of the UN Alliance Of Civilization in Fez, Morocco.

I moderated and spoke at a panel on the culture of peace with:
– Mr. Anar Karimov, Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan who presented their project “peace4culture”
– Mr. Valdis Zatlers, Former President of Latvia who mentioned the need for countries to reduce their
egos
– Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director General, Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(ICESCO) who presented the work of its organization in building peaceful societies
– Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos, High Representative, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, who invited me after meeting together in September in NYC and said he was “impacted” by my book and found it “a very good instrument”.

Here is a recording of the session. You can listen to Mr. Moratinos’ comments in our panel starting at minute 46.30: “In his book, [Thomas] really addresses this issue of how we have, in today’s societies, to redefine this element of culture, in order to really understand ourselves much better. The book impacted me, the book is the Politics of Being, that is what we are trying to defend through “culture”: it is our being, our identity, our sense, our history, and I think that it could be also a very good instrument.”

Here are some excerpts from my speech (starting at 50:00):

“We may not be able to stop today the different wars that are wreaking havoc but we can build
cultures of peace to avoid that new wars emerge in the future”

“Peace is above all a way of being, it starts inside of each of us, in the way we think – in a non-
dualistics manner acknowledging that everything is interrelated, – in the way we speak and listen to
one another, in our decisions as responsible consumers. My teacher zen master Thich Nhat Hanh
would say that peace is in every steps, in the way our feets kiss our mother earth with great respect
and love.”

“To build a global, peaceful and sustainable civilization, which honors cultural diversity, we need to
invest in building positive cultures.”

“As I show in my book “Politics of Being. Wisdom and Science for A New Development Paradigm”,
science can tell us, not only how to build cultures of peace, but also regenerative cultures organized
around the principles and laws of life, cultures of love, empathy and compassion, cultures of
wellbeing, mindful, responsible cultures, which cultivates our awareness of our deep interconnectedness.”

“Cultural development is the basis of authentic lasting human development.”

I had the pleasure to offer the panelists my book “Politics of being”, which shares the vision of UNAOC: “Many cultures. One humanity.”

The forum was also the opportunity to connect with other great leaders and initiate collaborations around cultural and civilizational diplomacy.

Glad to see the Politics of Being so well received in this UN cultural and diplomatic environment!