Dear Readers,
On March 15, 2019, a 16-year-old Swedish teenager led a worldwide strike which saw an estimated 1.4 million pupils from across the globe boycott school to demand more action to stop climate change. The response to this rallying call from over 2000 cities and with several hundreds of different cultures and languages lends credence to the fast pace of globalization. Studies have shown that the generation before Greta’s-millennials are renouncing nationalism in favor of global citizenship. There has been a deliberate effort to establish a culture of peace among young people from an early age through Global Citizenship Education. The aim of this initiative is to instill in young leaders values that foster respect and tolerance for people of different identities, faiths and cultures so they can identify as global citizens.
In this edition of your First Class Postbuzz, we let you in on the contributions of some young leaders from across the world committed to ensuring peaceful coexistence within their immediate communities and the world at large. You will meet Neluni Tillekeratne who is the Co-National Coordinator of Sri Lanka Unites, a youth movement working to unite and heal a country navigating the impact of decades of civil war. You will also hear from Syed Ali Abbass Zaidi who uses an unconventional artistic medium to spread the message of peace in Pakistan. We also bring you an interesting article on a youth-led publication on the Prevention of Violent Extremism dubbed #Youth-Waging-Peace. Here, you will meet Simon Kuany of UNESCO’s MGIEP in Delhi who led this project. Still on the theme of GCED, we bring you an interview with Selim Cherkaoui from the Belgian Justice Ministry on how intercultural and interfaith dialogue is being used in the prevention of violent extremism in prisons.
Under our regular Intercultural Perspectives column, Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas puts the spotlight on research by Prof. Yih-Teen Lee of the Institute of Higher Business Studies, IESE on what happens to one’s identity in the context of collaborative multicultural work in a globalized world.
There is also a report on our revitalized mentoring program which you may find interesting.
And as you are all aware, SIETAR Switzerland’s congress is due again next year. You will find in this newsletter a presentation of that event as well as our regular activities program for 2020.
Happy fall reading and warm regards!
Tawakalitu Braimah
Editor-In-Chief