Under the motto “Peace is for the Courageous,” the humanist organization World Without Wars held a dinner show to collect funds that will be used for the television broadcast of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence. The event, which had a full house with all 400 seats taken, took place on November 2 in the Salón Siranush at the Armenian Center in the city of Buenos Aires.
The evening’s entertainment was provided by well-known personalities from the world of art, culture, and media: Chef Martiniano Molina was in charge of the kitchen; Maximiliano Guerra, an internationally renowned dancer, presented a tango with his wife, Patricia Baca Urquiza; Adrián Otero, former singer for Memphis La Blusera, performed his most popular songs. Actor Juan Acosta and conductor Federica Pais were the hosts for the night.
The dinner was also graced by the special presence of Silo, founder of Universal Humanism and the muse of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, who will speak at the 10th Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to take place in Berlin, Germany, on November 11. Silo will take that opportunity to comment on the fundamentals of the World March and to advocate the circulation of the “Letter for a World Without Violence.”
Attending the dinner as well were representatives from the world of politics. Among them were: Daniel Filmus, National Senator for the ruling party; Agustín Rossi, National Representative and leader of the Front for Victory block; María José Lubertino, President of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI) and legislator-elect for Buenos Aires; Ariel Basteiro, National Representative for the Socialist Party; Julio Cesar Pereyra, mayor of Florencio Varela; and Lía Méndez, former Humanist Party legislator for Buenos Aires.
Martiniano Molina, in statements to Pressenza, expressed: “With this dinner we hope to support all of the people who work every day committed to peace and nonviolence, from tons of places, so that this reaches everyone.” The chef added that “the time has come for man to realize that he has to put down his weapons and use consensus as an evolutionary tool. It’s important that each one of us looks inside and considers how he or she can contribute toward the advancement of everyone; this look lets us see that we are all connected in some way.”
The dancer Maximiliano Guerra commented that his presence at the event was due to the fact that he was named a Messenger of Peace by UNESCO, and he thought that was in line with supporting the dinner to benefit the World March. “It’s a great feeling to be able to contribute to such an interesting march, such as it is to unite different people and cultures toward the same purpose: that wars come to an end, that the causes of violence become apparent, and that we know we can live in peace,” Guerra emphasized to Pressenza.
For his part, the musician Adrián Otero gave his opinion on the current state of violence: “If each one of us doesn’t start to contribute, it’s going to get wild, and I’m talking in the individual sense of not creating violence around you with the people that we hang out with. And then to be more ambitious and ask for bigger things, like nuclear disarmament, and the non-interference of some nations in others. I think it is a very worthwhile cause.”
As Guillermo Sullings, the voice of Humanism in Argentina, reported, the dinner was held “because we are going full steam ahead with this march, we – the activists of the Humanist Movement – are funding it, so we’re doing things with people that can help us finance television spots, and with that we will continue to raise awareness about the necessity for nuclear disarmament, the withdrawal of troops from occupied territories and all of the proposals of the World March.”
Daniel Filmus, National Senator for the Front for Victory and former Minister of Education of the Nation, stated that “since we agree with the movement and the world event for peace we’ve decided to participate. We feel that this wonderful movement – which has happened on a global level and which has been supported by many luminaries and many people – deserves to have our backing, and for that we are going to work energetically so that it will be a success.” Asked what he considered to be the worst form of violence today, Filmus noted: “Recently I was in Ethiopia, seeing the reality of daily life in Africa, of hunger, and like in many places in Latin America and Asia, it is the principal problem faced by a large part of humanity.”
When the event started at nine o’clock, the dinner attendees enjoyed vegetarian dishes while videos regarding the international tour of the Base Team for the World March and of the five fundamental postulates of the initiative were projected on a screen. To close the evening, around one in the morning, assistants, waiters, chefs, and technicians, alongside well-known artists, said goodbye with a call for “Peace, Force, and Joy.”
*(translation: T.M. Orzolek)*
