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Saturday, March 28, 2020

A Special Message From Worlds Children Peace Monument (WCPM) Ambassador Renate Jakupca Regarding COVID-19



Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Ambassador Renate shares thoughts of empathy, compassion, and community.

By Dr. David Jakupca
President and CEO,
International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA)
March 28, 2020

To all the Worlds Children, members, staff, and beyond:

In these uncertain times, I wanted to reach out to share that you, your family, your friends, and your colleagues are in our thoughts. We’re all anxious and things are changing quickly—each day feels like five news cycles. Our first priority is the health and safety of all the Worlds Children, our staff, visitors, and volunteers.

We’re approaching this time with the experience of helping to build communities for 30 years+. We do that with the humility we draw from the natural world, with the nimbleness the public expects from us, and through the grassroots network of families and individuals who connect through Iceality. Even while we’re coming to grips with this new normal, People everywhere have demonstrated a deep appreciation for just being safely outside where they can keep appropriate social distance and yet try to hear the songs of Spring approaching.

We’ve done the important basics: To help stop the spread of the virus, we’ve closed all WCPM offices, we’ve suspended all non-essential travel, and we’re postponing events and large gatherings. We’ve also closed all of our nature center at the historic ARK in Berea Eco-Museum while keeping the trails open for now. We’re regularly updating COVID-19 messages though inspirational posters by Dr. A.J. Brohi
 on our social media Facebook page, so you can see the status of the situation.

We’re continuing to work with our colleagues, some members of our conservation team are still able to perform important stewardship and monitoring work—and are doing so safely. Additionally, we’ve taken practical steps to ensure the health and continuity of the business side of our house as well.

We’re also looking at ways that the Worlds Children Peace Monument (WCPM) can help the broader community—and in times like these, Nature can provide a source of hope, a sense of resilience, and maybe even a little inspiration. Given the need for digital education tools with families staying home, we’re using this moment to leverage our digital tools and transform our educational programming and provide folks with online solutions that can be informative and fun:

    We have an online gallery by Dr Brohi that give daily tips and inspiration you can use:
   

To be sure, we’re all facing a long and challenging list of unknowns. We’re both gaining and losing visibility on what our new reality is each day—and it seems likely that things may get worse before they get better. But I’m confident that the International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA) leadership team and its international and state and center boards have the conservation expertise and the business experience to make good decisions at a trying time.To our dismay, amid the  #COVID2019 controversy #Cleveland, #Ohio  is missing the chance of global leadership as the 'Cradle for a Universal Culture of Peace" for All Living Things! By delaying to implementing of the acclaimed Worlds Children Peace Monument (WCPM) Politicians are not utilizing the respected Science of Peace and Global Harmony, the Theory of Iceality, for maximum affect to save the Planet from self destruction.


Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or if we can be helpful or supportive of you in any way. And a special request: If you know of creative changes from the United Nations or that other NGOs are making during this period—or if you have suggestions—I’m all ears. If you have ideas on how we can help serve you or your community, please send  them to me.

Many of you have heard me say that ‘I cannot do all the good that the WORLDS CHILDREN need, But the Worlds Children need all the good I can do". . . and right now, along with state and local leaders and patient funder partners, we are also what hope can look like for our communities.

Thank you for helping make our work possible.

Peace Friends and Please stay safe,

Ambassador Renate



















 
ARK in Berea Eco-Musum

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Senator Rob Portman Roundtable Discussion with Ambassador Renate and Dr. David Jakupca




Dear David and Ambassador Renate Jakupca,
It was wonderful to see you Friday in Parma Heights at the nationalities roundtable. Thank you for taking the time to meet and for providing me an opportunity to take part in an informative discussion about U.S. foreign policy, Ukraine, and efforts to combat misinformation, disinformation, and aggression from countries such as Russia and China. I always learn a lot from the input you provide and appreciate your efforts as leaders of our nationalities communities.
Through your commitment to your communities and to our country, you fight to stand up for American leadership abroad and the values and ideals it represents. America is stronger because of our diverse ethnicities and nationalities and we must continue to take on the responsibility of ensuring basic rights are protected across the globe.
I look forward to continuing to be your partner in Washington and I hope to see you all again soon.
Please, stay in touch.
All best,
Rob
https://www.portman.senate.gov/

Famous ARK in Berea Eco-Miseum
Global Home of the International Environmental Arts Movement



Tuesday, March 10, 2020

29th G8 Summit ICEAnews Coverage By David and Renate Jakupca



The 29th G8 summit was held in Évian-les-Bains, France, on June 1–3, 2003. As is usual for G8 summits, there were a range of protests.



These were covered for ICEAnews by David Jakupca as Photographer and Renate Jakupca as Journalist.  International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA)


Background

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981. The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.
The G8 summits during the twenty-first century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure.
Official G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998; the 2008 edition was published by Prestige Media.






Demonstrations, riots and authorities responsesDuring the protests, some manifestations went out of order as Swiss towns have been sacked by rioters. An accident also occurred during protest at the Aubonne bridge in Switzerland between Lausanne and Geneva, in which two activists suspended themselves from the bridge via a rope, with the rope stretching across the bridge, displaying a banner and obstructing traffic on the highway with the highest traffic density of Switzerland. Some protestors were arrested. One of the policemen, unaware people were attached to the rope, cut it. As a result, one of the protestors, Briton Martin Shaw, to plunge 20m into a rocky river and suffered multiple fractures. The other activist, German Gesine Wenzel, was caught by other protestors and could later abseil safely. In a ruling on 17 February 2006 a judge acquitted the two police officers found responsible on the grounds that their actions had been based on "a series of unfortunate misunderstandings" and therefore were not criminal. Indeed, as the anti-G8 manifestations were difficult to handle by their scales and by the seriousness of the disorders they caused many policemen (including the one who cut the rope) came from the German speaking part of Switzerland. The linguistic barriers, added to the stress of the situation (a blocked highway that could have resulted in many deaths) were considered by the court as critical in the misunderstandings that generated the accident.





















References:
ARK in Berea Eco Museum
https://theicea.com/page4

G7/8 Summits
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/summit/index.htm

SOMMET D'EVIAN 2003
http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/summit/2003evian/

United Nations World Conferences - Revisited
https://theicea.com/page14