On October 2nd, the third edition of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence was presented both at the Congress of Deputies of Spain and at the legislative assembly of Costa Rica.
We could say [it is] a handover.
The second World March left Madrid on 2 October 2019 and returned there on 8 March 2020. The Third will begin on 2 October 2024 from San Jose, Costa Rica and will end there on January 5, 2025.
I see the determination of Rafael de la Rubia (creator and coordinator of the World March, for the three editions) in underlining how important it is to move forward on the path begun in 2009 in the face of the profound human crisis, the great climate crisis, with the progressive increase in the use of weapons and with the great nuclear danger (90 seconds to the atomic catastrophe).
The alternative is the extinction of the human race.
I observe the concreteness of Martine Sicard (World without wars and violence WwW France, coordinator for Africa) in specifying that it is now difficult to hypothesize a path on the African continent due to its great geopolitical instability.
Marco Inglessis (president of the Energy for Human Rights association) inspires hope that we can return to Europe from Moscow and that a passage to Ukraine can be achieved.
But above all, there is lots and lots of enthusiasm from Latin America, from Giovanny Blanco Mata (WwW Costa Rica) and Cecilia Flores Avaria (WwW Chile).
Everyone hopes that more and more young people will be involved in this journey.
“We fell in love with two words, Peace and Nonviolence” so I had heard in the promo of the first World March in October 2008 when I decided to make a change in my existence and begin that path which was at times difficult and at times exciting. On Monday I asked myself to be there again.
The words of Montserrat Prieto (World without wars and violence, one of the main souls of the World March) came to mind.
“The experience I lived enriched my life. It’s incredible the amount of people working for peace and nonviolence around the world. I couldn’t believe it the first time we met during the first World March. We couldn’t believe the people we met everywhere, in all countries and anonymously. Everyone is working to make a difference. And for us it is starting. It takes a lot of effort, but it’s worth it. It’s worth it because it changes your mind and gives you another vision of the moment.”
During the second World March when we were organizing a visit to the Abombed Trees in Hiroshima, there was an interesting exchange of letters. We discussed the very image of the World March.
I wrote to her “For me it is the path of human beings, who meet, dialogue, compare and try to walk together. It is not easy at all with our differences (cultural, historical) but nothing is impossible if we all move towards peace with nonviolence. She told me “I too see the March as a people’s project.
You describe it very well. For me it is very important to know that everyone who participates in the March does so because they found something interesting in it. The fact that you can combine your voice with other voices to make it louder, but [it is] still your voice…”
Every day we hear about the worsening of conflict situations in the world, and every day we ourselves are more and more at “war” with ourselves; the World March is that hope that by meeting, by knowing each other, by joining forces everything is possible.
And with this hope, I set out towards the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence.
