Today I have had 
the honour of witnessing the lighting of the Olympic Torch for the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games beside the Temple of Herra, Olympia, Greece. On 22 April, 2011 I stood on exactly the same spot, not in a suit but in a t-shirt and carrying a twenty kilo rucksack as I prepared to embark on a ten month, 3000 mile solo-walk across Europe to raise awareness of the Olympic Truce.
The Olympic Truce wasn’t just part of the ancient Olympic Games, it was their entire point. The Games being conceived in 776BC as means of allowing fighting men of different city-states to rise above their differences and to compete in the temple of the king of the gods together as Olympians. The Olympic Games and their accompanying Sacred Truce were undoubtedly one of the most inspiring ideas to emerge from ancient Greece and they have a resonance for us today.
The idea was that if you could break the perpetual cycle of violence and open a window of peace and lift the eyes and minds of competitors and spectators beyond their differences in order to celebrate what they had in common, then it would show that peace was possible, that war was not the inevitable human condition, we could rise above our differences.
In the Modern era of the Olympic & Paralympic Games the Olympic Truce the truce has become more symbolic, than sacred. Since 1994 the Olympic Truce has been the subject of the of a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, however although most countries of the United Nations signed the truce resolution, there have only been a few examples of it being implemented. My walk campaign ‘Walk for Truce’ (www.walkfortruce.org) aimed to broaden awareness and extend implementation of the truce.
I was delighted that this campaign was quickly supported by The Foreign Secretary, William Hague as it was seen to fit very much with the emphasis which the government were placing on conflict prevention and in highlighting that resolutions of the UN should only be about fine words and ideals but should be backed by action.
The resolution is always proposed at the UN by the host nation of the Games. In October 2011 Lord Coe, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government proposed the Resolution ‘Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal’. The resolution when presented was not only agreed to by all 193 member states of the United Nations, it was co-sponsored by every member state of the United Nations.
This is why the prime minister, David Cameron has called the Olympic Truce, “an historic opportunity”. It is an opportunity to rediscover the ancient ideals and vision of the founders of the Olympic Games and apply them once again in a modern setting. It is an opportunity to hand on a legacy from London 2012 which stretches far beyond medals won and records broken, and is represented in lives saved and hope restored. To paraphrase the Chinese proverb, ‘It is better to light a flame than to curse the darkness’. So when this ‘flame’ of the Olympic truce is lit in London our desire is that it will not be extinguished at the closing ceremony on September 9 but will grow stronger and burn brighter as it is handed on to Sochi, Rio de Janeiro, Pyeongchang and beyond. That is a legacy worth working for….and walking for.
Quieter feet?
From a Longer-Term Civilisational Strategy viewpoint:
Neither The Olympic Truce nor the four-yearly Olympic Games have yet caused any Nation of People (or any Nation-State Governance) to “rise above” warmongering.
Wars have been occurring bigger, more destructive, ruthless and mutilating, than ever.
———-
What most probably would “lift us above” warmongering and lesser destructive-‘competitivenesses’, but is still not being seriously learned and implemented, is the
Method III of ‘first-resort’ Cooperative Problem Solving
(win-win-win for all parties’ vital needs)
beginning with Needs and Hows Recognition and Sustainworthy Allocation
(i.e.
sustainably,
affordably,
longterm morally adequately,
egalitarianly-sufficiently
and thriftily).
——-
Holding The Olympic Games under the United Nations
but permanently in Greece;
and similarly founding a Method III Cooperative Problem Solving Organisation, majorly within the United nations and as a ‘first-resort reach-out’ service to the World
would surely solve a number of warmongering problems that pervade the World under prevailing and ‘traditionally-best’ competitive-governances, and under the ‘Olympic Physical Prowess For The Very-Few “Fittest” Elite’,
as at present ?
@Milesjsd:
Bless you for that post, it has me on your side forever.
I am an admirer of you too, msaude (preferably maude)
“forever”;
and I have a real-today’s-world, ‘co-responsibility & response-ability’ model-version, of The Lord’s Prayer
which ends (precisely) like this:
“(and let us be) not leading into continual testings but delivering from every evil;
For ours are these Lifedoms, these Powers, and these Glorious-Stories;
both for Now and for Ever”
—
(If only our Civilisational thoughts and words could be brought true to the Lifesupportive Earth’s ‘natural’ (but alas! all-too-finite) ‘Inventory’
& to ‘God’s Creation’).
Perhaps we nonetheless are helping to bring about such a Legacy of Peace as Lord Bates also protagonistly subscribes vis a vis the (All-Round-Human-Health-Promoting?) Olympic Games.
Saturday 12 May 2012
and already it is “Germany Preparing for Greece to Leave the European Union”
= ‘first-domino’ in the Fragmentation of Europe ?
= & = medium-term Strategic-World opportunity for such a greater power, population, and world-money-bags as China to “buy us up”, “pick us off”,
one by one
who next after Greece ?
= & = & = Turkey more certain to turn Eastwards, too ?
Relevance ?
Is it “too late” for us as Europeans, Americans, and Democratic English-Speakers,
to “give” the Olympic Games back to Greece permanently ?
for the sake of Worldwide Economic-and-Peaceloving-Stability ?
Greece is in dire need of help. Yet our politicians send billions of our tax pounds to nations not needing our aid and who, once in receipt of it, abuse it. How is it the devastating situation our Greek European people face does not qualiify them for our governments sympathy in the same way as those outside European borders do?
Could it be called racism? Those horrid European foreigners must be left to starve and give away their children, for fear they cannot care for them, is only a matter of concern when the children and people are of other continents?
Yet, this thread tells us the jewel Greece and the Greek people were and are to Europe and its democratic way of life, we live by today, is to be discarded as worthless to us.
Austerity, of course, is good. As the rich get richer the poor weep for their children. Reminds you of Moses? He too was a baby floated in a basket, as his mother had to offer him elsewhere, for fear she would harm him by keeping him at her breast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16472310
Vive Hollande, Vive le France! Austerity is working to finnish us all.
I by contrast, am doing my own personal ride along the West Wales cycling route. I have past six welsh stone Castles in the last two days.
There was evidently no sign of peace in those days, or was it the English/Normans successful endeavour to quell the Welsh and tax them effectively, that was the cause of so much stone castle building?
As for Olympics, the nearest they got to thinking about that was the jousting places of Normandy, where William Marshall first Earl of England was no too worried about killing off an opponent in peace time during the joust, let alone in times of war.
’tis a bit rich, for peace, from one of the most bellicose people on earth, the modern British, declaring war on the cradle of Islam,Baghdad and its hinterland, partly in order to secure greater harmony of its own internal political divisions, the latter divisions enhanced by the successful rabble rousing of the republican Tony Blair.
Even now we are not hearing about Lords’ democracy from anybody of note.
The exponential increase in the use of the push or pedal bike for leisure purposes, partly due to the Tour de France stage wins by Brits in recent years, may be a mixed blessing
to some users of two wheels.
The sale of push/pedal bikes by motorbike salesmen/traders should be banned. The thin edge of the wedge in to the hard sell of motorbikes, has become the sale of push bikes to all.
It is true that electric bicycles are deemed to be in the same or similar category to push bikes, but none of those electric ones exceed
more than an extra push for the bicycle when necessary. Some think they are a mere gimmick.
For the purpose of pilgrimage or long voyage,
the push bike is priceless, not quite as good as shanks’ pony, but almost.
A motorbike often does serious damage to its owner, is a serious liability, until the wisdom of other safer forms of transport is found. It is not the M’cer who is dangerous but other road users, who take an attitude to motorbikes.
“Knock ’em off if you can”, is just one.
Ban the sale of M’bikes in the same shop as
pushbikes and vv!