The Words of the Balcomb Family
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The Words of the Balcomb Family |
On March 17, 2009, UPF-Latvia organized a “Global Peace Tour 2009” rally in Riga under the theme: “A New Paradigm of Education: Raising Responsible Citizens.” This was the second public event of UPF-Latvia since it was officially registered in May 2008, after the Global Peace Festival held last November.
At the initiative of Latvia-UPF President Leons Bojars, the event was hosted by Dr. Arcady Voitsish, President of the Baltic International Academy, in the conference hall of the Academy. It was attended by 70 participants, including two university presidents, university professors, 12 school directors, teachers and Ambassadors for Peace.
Rev. Chung Dong Suk, Special Advisor to UPF-Latvia, was introduced to the audience. Then Dr. Bojars gave introductory remarks, followed by a talk on the influence of technology on students’ character development by Dr. Evgeniy Kopitov, President of the Transport and Communications University.
UPF-Eurasia Secretary General Jacques Marion spoke on UPF's Philosophy of Education, followed by a testimony from Vadim Bolshakov, UPF-Latvia Assistant Secretary General, who shared about UPF-sponsored service projects in Latvia, and particularly his experience in giving character education lectures to high school students.
Dr. Voitsish gave a brief but heart-warming welcome as a host to all participants, and testified about his impressions at the UPF conference he attended in Korea last October. Two videos were shown about UPF and the Global Peace Festival.
Finally, Dr. Katsumi Othsuka, UPF-Eurasia Chairman, gave the Keynote Address on “One Family Under God: A New Vision for Peace in the 21st Century” on behalf of UPF Co-Chair Dr. Hyun Jin Moon.
The event ended with a gathering of distinguished guests and Ambassadors for Peace around drinks and snacks, for questions and answers and getting to know one another.