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News Archives
 
Following is an archive of the State of the World Forum news updates.

Week of:
10/24/00
6/23/00
6/19/00
5/5/00
4/28/00
4/17/00
4/14/00

 
October 24, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

FORUM 2000 SUMMARY
Forum 2000 was an extraordinary success, marking the first time that all the major stakeholders concerned with globalization were brought together for sustained interaction and dialogue.

The Forum worked with over 100 partners worldwide to convene more than 2,000 individuals for the seven-day conference, including Heads of State, representatives of the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, business executives, leaders from the protest groups and trade unions, representatives of world religions, academia, science and technology, and art and culture.

Over 80 nations were represented in this historic event, and over 175 youth from around the world participated. With more than 300 separate plenaries, breakout sessions, lunches, dinners and receptions, Forum 2000 was both historic and transformative, laying the basis for an array of new initiatives and partnerships. Some of these will be highlighted in future communications to our community beginning fall quarter, 2000.

PRAGUE, SEPTEMBER 23-27, 2000
Jim Garrison was invited as a guest of President Vaclav Havel for a special discussion, "Praga dialogi locus," which President Havel hosted at Prague Castle on September 23, prior to the opening of the World Bank and IMF meetings. The one and a half hour dialogue, moderated by Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, consisted of the following panelists: James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank; Horst Kohler, Director General of the IMF; George Soros, Financier; Walden Bello, Director of the Focus on the Global South; Ann Pettifor, Director of Jubilee 2000; and Katarina Liskova, head of a local Czech environmental group. President Havel opened and closed the dialogue, after which there was an opportunity for informal conversation and refreshments in the beautiful gardens of the Castle grounds.

In the course of the event, Jim met directly with each of the individual panelists and broached the idea of an ongoing consultative mechanism for sustained interaction and dialogue on the issue of globalization. All supported the idea, and President Havel's office invited Jim back to Prague on October 14-18 for his Forum 2000 event, the focus of which will be globalization and education.

Over the next several days, Jim met with a spectrum of other representatives of the IMF and the World Bank, and from the organizing groups of some 10,000 protesters who were holding seminars and teach-ins on eliminating poverty, tackling third world debt and the pros and cons of the prevailing multilateral institutions, sessions which were held at a number of venues across the city. During one such session, James Wolfensohn and Bono, lead singer of the Irish band U2, held a dialogue on third world debt.

On Tuesday, September 26, the IMF and World Bank conference formally began, and with it a massive attempt by the protesters to contain the delegates in the Congress Center where they were meeting. The protesters formed themselves into four groups, three attempting to cross each of the bridges to the meeting site, and one which took an alternate route and ultimately came within 30 meters of the Congress Center, where delegates watched from the glass-enclosed building while police and protestors engaged in combat.

Each of the three groups attempting to cross the bridges were met by a phalanx of police in riot gear, backed by military tanks equipped with water cannons. After being beaten and tear-gassed, the protestors ended the stalemate by withdrawing early in the afternoon. Later, a McDonald's, a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Dunkin’ Donuts were trashed in the city center near the old square.

Prague was a missed opportunity. The police created a tense and warlike atmosphere, which was reciprocated by the protestors. The IMF and World Bank contributed to the tensions by refusing to engage in any serious dialogue other than a few cosmetic and very short interchanges with protest leaders. President Havel contented himself with sponsoring a ninety-minute dialogue two days before the event; and then subsequently spent his time with dignitaries, leaving his police to deal with the protestors. The result was violence and an atmosphere so counterproductive to even conducting official business that the IMF/World Bank meeting was brought to a close a full day ahead of schedule.

The lesson of Prague is three-fold: first, the protestors represent an emerging global social movement that is getting increasingly articulate, well organized and powerful; second, the prevailing multilateral institutions are aware that they must change or face increased protests and, possibly, forced reform; and third, there are huge misperceptions and prejudices between the various stakeholders that can and would be ameliorated by sustained interaction and dialogue.

The net affect of the Prague experience reconfirms the need to continue the multi-stakeholder dialogues begun at Forum 2000. This is the basis of the Commission on Globalization which was proposed during Forum 2000. It is something that all the principle participants endorsed; and it is something that no other institution is doing. The State of the World Forum has in effect created the space for such a dialogue; the events in Prague made it even more urgent. Almost without exception, the various constituencies solicit leadership of a neutral institution in creating a consultative mechanism for sustained interaction and deliberation.

 
June 23, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

CNN INTERNATIONAL TO BROADCAST PSA WORLDWIDE ON FORUM 2000
The most recent exciting news is that our public relations and media partner, Hoffman & Hoffman, has secured an agreement with CNN International to run a series of public service announcements about Forum 2000 and our multi-stakeholder dialogues on globalization. The PSAs will be broadcast daily worldwide beginning in late July. They will provide extraordinary exposure for the conference and will bring hundreds of thousands of interested parties to our website.

DEVELOPMENTS WITH UNICEF ON CHILDREN'S ISSUES
We are in the process of actively working with UNICEF to develop a highly dimensionalized track on the issue of children. Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel have been invited to close the conference on Sunday, September 10 with a keynote address on "Nurturing our Children in a Globalizing World." This will build on the sessioni we are developing with General Colin Powell, Jane Goodall, Carol Bellamy, and Olara Otunnu on Wednesday, September 6. Mandella and Machel are both Co-Chairs for the UNICEF World Conference on Children scheduled to convene in September 2001.


 
June 19, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

HOFFMAN & HOFFMAN RETAINED AS PUBLIC RELATIONS PARTNER
We are delighted to announce that Hoffman & Hoffman in Falls Church, VA, have been retained as our public relations and media coordination partner. Marshall Hoffman and his team are very seasoned and skilled at attracting media attention, and they have a long history of successfully working with the United Nations and World Bank. Their track record is second to none for getting positive press attention from their clients.

 
May 5, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

CHILDREN’S TROUBADOUR RAFFI HELPS SHAPE CHILDREN’S THEME AT FORUM 2000
Singer and composer Raffi, known and loved for his songs for children for over two decades and founder of the Troubadour Institute to Inspire Child Honouring, is actively involved in the design of the sessions on children for Forum 2000.

Raffi’s Covenant for Sustaining Children, a poetic declaration of our
responsibilities to children and the Earth, is being widely acclaimed among child advocacy and environmental health groups. In recent months, Raffi has written and recorded several motivational songs including, "It Takes a Village," as well as two inspired by Jane Goodall.

Raffi speaks and performs at major events and conferences, including the recent World Bank conference, Investing in Our Children’s Future and the Million Moms March. We are delighted that Raffi will be a presenter at the Forum.


 
April 28, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

COLIN POWELL TO ATTEND FORUM 2000
We are delighted to announce that General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now Chairman of America's Promise, has confirmed his participation in Forum 2000. General Powell has agreed to deliver a keynote address on Wednesday, September 6th on "The Endangered Child/Nurtured Child in a Globalizing World." We have invited Queen Noor to Chair the session. Others invited include Jane Goodall, primatologist and Co-Chair of the Forum; Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund and Co-Chair of the Forum; Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict; and Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF.

SESSIONS PLANNED FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN GENOME
Nandini Tandon, Chief Business Officer of Zyonyx Corporation, in
partnership with the Link Foundation, will convene a series of sessions at Forum 2000 on "Bioinformatics, the Human Genome and the Human Future." This is a follow-up to the very successful session Dr. Tandon convened at last year’s Forum on "Biotechnology: Challenges and Opportunities." The Link Foundation is convening a series of conferences on "The Human Genome/Human Being" around the world, beginning this June in Beijing, in partnership with Beijing University. The sessions at Forum 2000 will include a session on "Biotechnology and AIDS."

 
April 17, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:

Given the focus of Forum 2000 on the issue of globalization, we are choosing our various partners with this in mind. What this means in terms of youth participation are two specific partnerships:

YOUTH EMPLOYMENT SUMMIT (YES)
YES is an initiative of the Education Development Center, with the goal of ensuring that 500 million young adults have productive and sustainable livelihoods by the year 2010.

Supported by OECD, USAID, and the ILO, YES is launching a ten-year campaign focusing on creating Summit Partnership Networks globally and locally to spearhead efforts to improve youth employment programs around the globe, and helping companies and organizations develop Institutional Action Plans to create new opportunities for youth employment.

FREE THE CHILDREN
Free the Children plans to convene a panel of youth and adult labor
activists and government ministers to discuss the issue of child labor. FTC has literally thousands of youth activists in its network in over twenty countries worldwide and has done as much as any organization anywhere to highlight the issue of child labor abuses. The founders of FTC, Craig and Mark Keilberger, are also part of the Forum’s Emerging Leaders Program.

 
April 14, 2000
 
NEW THIS WEEK:
* Mikhail Gorbachev to open Forum 2000 with Queen Noor
* Partnerships in Shaping Program

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV CONFIRMS PARTICIPATION
I met with Mikhail Gorbachev on Sunday April 9 in Denver to discuss his participation in Forum 2000. He confirmed that he will provide welcoming remarks at our opening gala dinner September 4th in partnership with Queen Noor and perhaps one other Co-Chair.

The following morning he will convene the opening plenary session on "Globalization and the New World Order", during which he will present the findings of a two year study on the issue conducted by his Moscow-based foundation, which has been holding regional
hearings around the world.

PARTNERSHIPS WITH McKINSEY & CO., HEIDRICH & STRUGGLES, UNIONS, AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN SHAPING FORUM 2000 PROGRAM.
In addition to Gorbachev, we are working with an extraordinary array of partners in designing the program theme "Shaping Globalization: Convening the Community of Stakeholders:"

* McKinsey & Co., the premier consulting firm, is providing the
intellectual leadership in assisting us in crafting the content and thematic flow of the proceedings;
* Heidrick & Struggles, the premier executive search firm, is assisting in bringing top business executives from around the world and will be convening a session with chief executives on the challenges to executive leadership presented by globalization;
* The leading labor and civil society groups involved in the Seattle protests are involved both to articulate their critiques of globalization and to ensure a wide spectrum of grassroots representation ;
* Juan Somavia, Director General of the International Labor Organization, will moderate a multi-stakeholder dialogue on "The Social Implications of Globalization;" and
* Steven Covey is putting together a world class team of facilitators to advise on the over-all conference design.