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INTERDEPENDENCE DAY VIII: BERLIN – September 10-12, 2010
Following seven successful Interdependence Day Celebrations and Forums starting in 2003 in Philadelphia and continuing in Rome, Paris, Casablanca, Mexico City, Brussels and Istanbul (2009), Professor Benjamin Barber and his global NGO “CivWorld at Dēmos” are pleased to announce that Interdependence Day VIII will be held in Berlin, Germany from September 10-12, 2010.
Working closely with its global Steering Committee and partners from earlier years including the British Council (U.K.), the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin) and the Focolare Movement (Italy), CivWorld will cooperate with two major partners in Berlin who will act as collaborators and hosts: the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, whose director Bernd Scherer serves on our steering committee and will coordinate planning in Berlin, and the Radialsystem Theater, whose artistic director Jochen Sandig is a long time collaborator. A number of other organizations will be engaged, including the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Mark Donfried) and Transparency International, whose director Miklos Marschall has been a regular participant in previous Interdependence Day events.
In addition, CivWorld will seek the involvement of institutions and organizations with which Dr. Barber has had associations, including the American Academy of Berlin (director, Gary Smith) where Dr. Barber was a fellow in 2001-2002; the Wissenschaftskolleg, where Dr. Barber was a visiting scholar in 1991; and the Hertie School, where Dr. Barber taught in 2007. The Einstein Forum and the Institute for Civil Society (Peter Eigen) are also possible collaborators.
Individuals who are already engaged in the work of the interdependence movement, and who are cooperating in planning for the Berlin events, include Dr. Martin Frick, a new member of the Steering Committee and the executive director of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva, Dr. Gesine Schwan, former candidate for the German Presidency and director of the Humboldt – Viadrina School of Governance, and Professor Claus Offe, formerly of Humboldt University and the Hertie School, and a founding member both of Interdependence Day and the Steering Committee.
As always, Interdependence Day in Berlin will bring together leaders from the worlds of scholarship, religion, civil society, politics and the arts and will include scholarly seminars, public debates, artistic performances and exhibitions and on September 12 (Interdependence Day) a gala public event bringing together international participants and members of the Berlin community.
The events in Berlin will focus on two vital themes that help define the meanings of interdependence: climate change and the challenge of addressing global warming in a world without interdependent institutions; and religious and cultural conflict, and the ways in which it impinges on peace and justice as well as issues of addressing climate change.
As in both of the last two Interdependence Day celebrations, the Berlin forum will include a Youth Summit that will engage young people from many countries both in their own activities and in its panels and seminars. Drawing, as in the past, on young people from the British Council’s Young Leaders project, the Institute for Global Diplomacy’s youth leaders, and many other organizations, Interdependence Day will draw on the contributions of the youth leaders who constitute our future.
Leading figures from the Bundesrat and from the Mayor’s office will be invited to take part in all events, and asked to help host the September 12th Interdependence Day celebration and forum.
More information and details of sponsorship and participation are available at the CivWorld website at www.civworld.org; at www.benjaminbarber.org and by contacting Holly Lane, CivWorld at Dēmos, 220 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10001 (hlane@demos.org).
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