Beyond the
Global Divide:
3rd International Youth
Summit
June 20 - June 25, 2006 in Palengue, Mexico
From Michael Ware on Beyond the Global Divide
Beyond the Global Divide (BGD) is a meeting comprised of youth and Tribal Elders from all over the world to exchange knowledge. The objective for these gatherings is world peace. Our goal is to develop a dynamic leadership core of youth leaders who embrace values from the teachings, wisdom, and guidance of traditional and domestic elders. Beyond the Global Divide celebrates both the uniqueness and commonality of our various world cultures and our shared hope for a more peaceful world.
Youth Director and Visionary of BGD, Michael Ware, believes that, “We need to look at what our definition of world peace means, if I ask everybody what defines world peace, you would all have something different to say. To totally make this vision work, we need to hear as many diverse ideas of world peace as possible, represented by individuals from around the world.
No one person or nation has the answer. If it is world peace we’re talking about we need a worldview. I strongly believe in taking care of the home front, and or our self before we can effectively care for someone else, but its necessary to know that what we do affects those at home and abroad.
“Michael believes that world peace is, “ . . . far more than one country’s foreign policy, and the way it affects another. It’s the way we treat our environment and how we choose to use natural resources. It has to do with our worldview on religions and a lot of small things we so often look past, mainly, the love of self.
We cannot help anybody if we are not right within our self. I so often talk to people about the topic of world peace and nine times out of ten, what I here from them is that it cannot happen. The first point they bring up is that the world powers make to much money off of the death and destruction they feed to the world. *That’s one main illness we have to over come before a lot of other problems will be solved.
Focusing mainly on my generation, we are fed by TV, and all the other ways they can make us love money more than we love our selves. This makes the loving and moral side of us secondary to making and spending money . . .
Today the phrase world peace is watered down. I believe that most people truly feel that it can’t happen, but they say it anyway because it’s the expected thing to say. I say it because I know it is possible and I feel that I have a responsibility to help create the network that starts a visible world movement towards that goal … a beginning of a number of organizations around the world striving to achieve the same results. There are people already out there that are working on it right now, but the vision is of massive proportions. I urge all organizations working towards the same goal to be a part of Beyond the Global Divide.
It is my dream that 2010 will not be the end of ten years of world leadership, but the beginning of a new nation. A world nation made up of hundreds of organizations and people that work hard and believe that world peace is not just possible but will take place.”
Beyond the Global Divide creates an opportunity to share this vision. It creates the opportunity for people to come together with like minds to create a unified plan to accomplish peace, to create a focused, structured organization while utilizing everyone’s abilities and connections to help accomplish our goal.
No one person has the answer, but the BGD summit creates an environment for great ideas, individuals and plans for action to come forward to be implemented.”
To contact Michael: trailmixgreen@aol.com
Mr. Ware is the Youth Coordinator for the Spirit of Truth Foundation. He also held the vision for Beyond the Global Divide. In this interview Michael shares his insights about the first gathering in 2002 as STF prepares for the third gathering in June of this year.
How do you feel as result of completing the first summit?
I feel that it opened up the energy and the necessary doors for my initial vision for the Summit. There’s a lot more that needs to go on. But the first one opened the door for the rest that needs to happen. It was a great success for a lot of people that was very necessary.
There’s a lot more work to be done. I would like to see a lot more activity outside the Summit, a lot more communication with the Youth and the Spirit of Truth Foundation, a lot more programs started throughout the world as a result of the Summit. But the first one was a great stepping stone for what was to come.
What is your vision?
Starting an awakening or renaissance in the way we communicate with each other across the world. It is a revolution but not one of people running in the streets and tearing up stuff. It is more of an evolutionary revolution. I don’t really have a term for it yet. I want people to know that they can still affect the government and change the world. It has to start with a new form of communication between us and our understanding of one another. We have to learn how to stop the gangsters of the world… stop something bad before it happens. There is power in numbers. We have to realize and understand that. The gangsters have gotten us to make believe something that is not real. That is their control. We have to get the control back.
“We” refers to all of us together not just the Youth.
Do you feel that the Summit was effective in bringing various
groups together?
Yes, definitely. I want to put the groups into different categories this time. I want to focus more on the traditional elders being traditional elders and the youth being the youth…
Are plans underway for the next one?
Yes, I’m getting letters and equipment, etc together for it now. I am trying to be more academic and strategic in the approach this time instead of so “new age”/“grass roots.” I don’t want to approach it that way this time. We didn’t do that last time but it kind of happened anyway. I envision a more hands-on network for us to work with each other with valuable resources (fundraising, strategic planning/organizing, etc.) that other institutions and people can rely on through The Spirit of Truth Foundation to help meet their goals and objectives.
Where will the next one be held?
Tiger Mountain, Georgia, the same spot.
Do you envision the Summit taking place in other countries?
We thought about it, but that would be most likely after 2010. That’s when I want to focus on taking it outside of the States.
I want to focus on getting really tangible results, like the Declaration of Peace, signed by political leaders around the world and other projects. I want to stay focused on the goals and the mission of the Summit instead of getting caught up in beautiful places and spaces.
We want to get enough thrust behind the Declaration of Peace so that it will be recognized and taken seriously. I would like to see it hit mainstream media and reach various groups of people from MTV to CNN. To the extent that political leaders will be forced to make a change because it is too visible and too powerful.
Any other information or inspirations that you would like to leave
others with?
I’d like to leave a quote by Keith “The Professor” Harris, Motivational/Inspirational Speaker and Youth Advocate. This quote is an adopted mission statement for the Global Divide:
In an age where technology allows young people to consume enormous amounts of information faster than they can reckon with the implications of what they see and hear, we feel that it is important to provide an atmosphere in which our youth can communicate with elders in an effort to re-evaluate our most fundamental human values.
Singer and spoken word artist Tamara Madison-Shaw interviewed Visioneer - Michael Ware in December of 2003.