Elisabeth Guigou, former Minister of Justice of France, president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly and president of the “Anna Lindh Foundation”, during the visit to the Museum of Peace - MAMT and the emotional path dedicated to the sculptor Mario Molinari, has expressed great admiration for his works, especially for the joy of life that transpires from its colors. "In a time of history in which all of us, to counteract the negative and terrorism, we should strongly support the positive and what unites us-said Mme Guigou - the teaching of Molinari, sculptor of color, is precious because it makes us understand the Need to share all the colors of life and not just the greys and blacks, represented by tragedies and mourning. The "Totem of Peace" - made in 1995 by the Turin sculptor and diffused throughout the world by the Fondazione Mediterraneo-is the symbol that summarizes the joy of life and the hope of a new resurgence of peace ".
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08 September 2016
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) -
Category: Anno 2016
The Advisor Council of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue consisting of the 42 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UpM), met today at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, inaugurated by the undersecretary Bendetto della Vedova at Presence of the Executive director of the Fondazione Anna Lindh Ambassador Hatem Atallah and the president of the Fondazione Anna Lindh Elisabeth Guigou.
"The peace and stability of the Mediterranean is a priority for Italy, which strongly believes in the collaboration between the two shores of the Mediterranean," said the undersecretary Della Vedova during its opening intervention, "Italy has long supported the Foundation's work to build a narrative against extremism and radicalization. The work of the Anna Lindh Foundation is fundamental to change the narrative on our region, bringing new incentive to the partnership between the two shores of the Mediterranean and putting civil society at the heart of this partnership ". The council, chaired by Elisabeth Guigou, president of the Foreign Committee of the French National Assembly, is composed of eminent personalities from Europe and the partner countries of the South Mediterranean shore, and is responsible for the management Strategic Foundation: Italy is represented by Prof. Michele Capasso, president of the “Fondazione Mediterraneo” that has contributed substantially to the birth and development of the same Fondazione Anna Lindh since 2002.
At the heart of today's debate was the role of the Anna Lindh Foundation, as an institution and reference point for intercultural dialogue in the region, facing the regional challenge of extremism and the refugee crisis.
President Elisabeth Guigou pointed out that in the Mediterranean there is a convergence of values and that extremists who promote the alternative vision of a clash of values are a minority. The Foundation aims to encourage the silent majority to make its voice heard. The proposals of the president Capasso-among the proposals put forward- have been collected aimed at promoting "what unites us", the "positive" and focusing the main actions of the ALF on young people, women and cities "places of and for dialogue".
Future actions include the implementation of a regional youth programme, an Erasmus Mediterranean Youth Programme for ONG youth and the involvement of the main Mediterranean cities in cultural and social interaction.
In order to emerge from the deep crisis in the Mediterranean, regional diplomacy must move quickly: we need a rethinking of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue in the region, new instruments and a new common identity. This, in summary, is the message launched during the seminar organised at the Farnesina by the Institute for International Affairs (IAI) in collaboration with the Italian Network for the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue (RIDE), a reference point for the Anna Lindh Foundation network (ALF) in Italy. Redefining intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean is the only way out of the situation in the region. We need to "build together a new common cultural identity", he said opening the works Pasquale Ferrara, ambassador of Italy designated in Algiers, reminding us how to do this we need to do it "involving all the actors of the region: civil society, non-governmental organizations, cultural operators of the southern shore", not only those of the northern shore. Therefore, not a Euro-centric vision but a Euro-Mediterranean vision. What must be clear "is that we are united by the same destiny and the challenges are the same for the whole Mediterranean: security, development, the fight against terrorism and extremist ideologies - not only Isis - mobility, young people,"said Anna Lindh Foundation President Elisabeth Guigou. To have a true intercultural dialogue we need to know each other and to do so,"it is necessary to use every means, every instrument", even technology. Extremism, Guigou recalled, flows along the net, "but the internet can be used to counteract the spread of this deviant ideology". "I hope - concluded the President of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly - that Europe will not only think about solving its problems, but that it will also look beyond its borders, that is to say the southern shore". The approach, the seminar's promoters repeat, must be multi-sectoral: economic, social and cultural, because the most affected by the crisis are young people, all too often driven by unemployment and social exclusion towards violence and extremism. And on the need to have a Mediterranean identity and a clear message, based on a cultural dialogue in order to be able to restart, insisted Enzo Amendola, undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, concluding the work. "Looking at past mistakes - he said - we must learn to find meeting points, but also to disagree. The mission, Amendola repeats, is that of "protecting our common cultural heritage", past and present, and defending it from that "totalitarian idea of wanting to erase it". Finally, we need "a positive planner for the Mediterranean, a partnership capable of defining a new geopolitical vision", in short,"a common future vision that focuses above all on young people in the area to solve the challenges facing the Mediterranean".
On the occasion of the canonization of Madre Teresa di Calcutta, the of “Fondazione Mediterraneo” prof. Michele President Capasso presented to the FMA Sisters of the Community of Prayer of St. Biagio the emotional videos of the Museum and, especially, those on Madre Teresa di Calcutta, from today St. Teresa di Calcutta.