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THIS MATERIAL PERTAINS TO THE "HANDSHAKES & HUGS" CEREMONY AS CONCEPTUALIZED AND HELD IN THE YEAR 2000. UPDATED MATERIAL ON THE UNCHANGED CONCEPT & DESIGN IS CURRENTLY UNDER PREPARATION.

Come and join us, and be an active participant in this very special worldwide project called "Handshakes and Hugs (Around the World) for Earth Synergy." It is a project initiated and proposed all around by a synergism-oriented foundation in the Philippines. It is a project that belongs to all of us who would claim it by doing whatever can be done to help make this a widespread and successful historic activity.

If you have any "foreigner" friends or acquaintances, or if you are in a "foreign" land, or even if you are not, you can be an active participant in this project wherever you are in the world. Organize a "Handshakes and Hugs" party in your own town, in your own home or office, do it with friends and associates, help us get the "Earth Synergy" poem/prayer translated into your language, or at the very least, help us spread the word about this. By doing just any of that, you will have joined a historic international project.

A poem/prayer for Earth Synergy, titled "A Giant Leap for Humankind," underscoring the joint responsibility of humankind for the environmental destruction and the urgent need to rescue and heal, conserve and exalt our Mother Earth," has been composed (click here for text), and translation into various languages of the world has started. As of now, translations into Bengali, Danish, Filipino, French, German, Japanese and Swedish have been mounted on the Internet in the Saniblakas (synergy) Foundation website .

To maximize the logic of the poem/prayer's message, Saniblakas Foundation (Philippines) has launched "HUGS AND HANDSHAKES (around the world) FOR EARTH SYNERGY" as a broad-based but loosely-coordinated activity.

Specifically, we are proposing that there be…
     1) small and big gatherings of people representing as many nationalities as possible (at least two or three nationalities represented in each gathering),
     2) to be held for about two hours at whatever time on April 22 (Earth Day 2000) or April 23 (Easter Sunday), 2000, in as many places as possible in as many cities, towns and countries as possible,
     3) to silently read, contemplate, discuss and chorus-recite the Earth Synergy 2000 poem/prayer "A Giant Leap for Humankind" and/or its translation(s),
     4) after which they applaud together the synergy of all these gatherings around the world and the even more powerful synergy of their joint commitment "to rescue and heal, conserve and exalt our Mother Earth,"
     5) "seal" this synergetic event with hugs and handshakes all around,
     6) eat and drink with appropriate music to celebrate,
     7) hold a short on-site meeting of a small group of keenly interested individual leaders and volunteers to discuss possible concrete plans for the environment, and
     8) finally share the experience with all others (through various means, including sending news messages to saniblakas infoshare and the international earth day 2000 coordination network.

This would be very broad-based, because it is intended and proposed to be done in "as many places as possible (offices, homes, schools, parks, public squares, churches, anywhere!) in as many countries as possible," and would hopefully involve scores, if not hundreds, of inter-government and government agencies, as well as non-government and people's organizations of various scopes of concern.

And this can only be very loosely coordinated, because at its center, Saniblakas Foundation in the Philippines, as the initiating entity, is limiting its role to the dissemination of information on this project, invitations (for participation) and guidelines on a few basics, including the text of the poem and its translations, and to collating and disseminating subsequent reports.

The participating groups who would organize the "Handshakes and Hugs" gatherings in their respective areas/sectors would set their specifics beyond the initiating entity's basic guidelines, and raise the necessary resources to cover expenses. Participants can be asked to pitch in for food and drinks. It can even be an income-generating project for environmental NGOs and government agencies, who are all encouraged to join in "to combine and not to compete," for as long as the fund-raising aspect does not take the focus away from the message of the Earth Synergy 2000 poem/prayer, the unifying message and essence of the activity.

After the "Handshakes and Hugs" gatherings, organizers or whoever is tasked by the small meeting towards the end, would send a message SanibLakas InfoShare that would include the following information:
     1. Date, time and exact venue of the gathering
     2. Total number of participants, and a breakdown to indicate representation of nationalities.
     3. Description of profile of participants, mentioning age, gender, social status and    occupation, etc. of participants.
     4. Language(s) in which the "Earth Synergy 2000" poem/prayer was read silently and together. (please attach copies of the translations from English and identity of translators)
     5. A sharing of the highly notable moments and aspects of the gathering, notable deviations (additions and subtractions) from the format issued by SanibLakas, and the overall feeling especially after the chorused recitation and the handshakes and hugs all around.
     6. Decisions made in the brief meeting at the end of the gathering.
     7. Organizations involved, with contact persons and contact numbers.
     8. Specific comments from participants.
     9. Info on other "Handshakes and Hugs for Earth Synergy 2000" gatherings held in the same country, city/town, etc.
   10. Name, occupational description and contact addresses/numbers of person sending this information.

       Greetings from Pakistan. I did write to you earlier that we would be translating the poem/prayer "A Giant Leap for Humankind," into Urdu. I am sorry it has taken so long... it has been a difficult job getting it done. We will be celebrating handshakes on April 22 starting around 8:00 am, for which we have written a separate song (idea taken from Earth Synergy 2000). We plan to have 10,000 children come and sing it to a popular local tune. I will write more about it later. The translation of your poem/prayer is attached.

All the best,

Mahenaz Mahmud
Teachers' Resource Centre

I am interested in being part of this but can't raise
the site to print or even read the poem.  Please email
it to me, so we can do this at our Earth Day rally.
Thank you much, peace.

Leslie Perrigo
All Area Activists for Earth Day Network 2000

(We e-mailed back promptly the original Earth Synergy poem-prayer in English)

        As president of Fortview Foundation Inc, I pledge to organize a 'Circle of Friends' party in Crossmaglen S.Armagh on April 23rd the day after Earthday 2000 April 22nd on the N.Irish border and shall invite persons from all walks of life to meet upon that border site to 'forge a human peace cirle' Reconciliation in Ireland and the world. Afterwards, we shall travel 'together as a unified group' for the reading of "A Giant Leap for Humankind" and song and dance party in Crossmaglen town.

Patrick J. McEntegart C.P.C./C.S.I.
crossmaglen@earthlink.net
http://dunreavy-once-more.com

From Russia...

Dear Friends,
     Thank you for your wonderful initiative. We'll share your information within unique ASEKO-Inform electronic net to 1500+ addresses from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean to 15 countries where people are speaking hundred languages.
      With the very best wishes,
      Vadim Kalinin,
      Association for Environmental Education -- ASEKO-Russia

Sunday, January 16
Dear Friend,
.
    Greetings from the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA).
.
     Your e-mail message has been forwarded to all EEASA council members. Unfortunately we do not have all our EEASA members e-mail details but the elected council members are based throughout southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Angola, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana) and come into contact with many environmental educators. The council members also assists in keeping others up-to-date with 'happenings' so hopefully they will all
forward your message onto MORE people.
.
    All the best

Clare Holland
EEASA Admin Secretary

    Thank you for airing your new idea! I don't think you're too ambitious, but it's nice to be in touch with such creative people like you, who both have the initiative, interest, inspiration and intelligence to induce people to go further! Though you're to a certain extent detailed I may still ask a little: Have you in mind (for a meeting in Stockholm) people exclusively from Stockholm-area or from Sweden as such or maybe from other Nordic countries as well?

    I suppose it's more in line with the first: attendants from a rather limited area here. Three hours (as a preliminary time-measure) session indicates convenient ways to arrive. Have you made Easter as a choice all over the meetings you're hoping will be materialized? It may be good, only to be aware of that it's a vacation-time, I mean a time for moving/travelling/fellowship, but if we reach the real target-group it may be fine.  I can think of contacting the Filipinos here and some environmental groups or NGOs of that interest.

    To summarize: Is your intention just a meeting to focus on your poem and its content, for reflection and sharing, a meal or something to eat/drink together and so being part of a world-wide event? What do you then mean by "mount some sort of campaign" and "persons
from sweden who are not in many countries"?

Rev. Olof Lindström
Baptist Union of Sweden
Stockholm

(From an Earth-hugging Filipino theater, television and cinema actress, upon learning of the response from Russia)

     That is so beautiful Ding,

     I love the feeling of "from the Baltic to the Pacific". This message is already an oceanic handshake and hug.  Can you mail me again the SWA: "Handshakes and Hugs" please? Thanks.

Chin-Chin Gutierrez
 

In the Philippines, the SanibLakas ng Taongbayan Foundation focuses on a consciousness campaign for this "Earth Synergy" theme.

We are  promoting this theme through all forms and channels of communication that we can use, and ask all those that we can convince to help us propagate it through their own respective spheres of influence.

We have expanded the SanibLakas InfoShare that we have had for the last two Earth Day commemorations. We’ll start earlier this time in seeking, gathering and sharing all the information we can get from people’s organizations and networks, non-government organizations, government bodies and agencies, and private sector entities on what they are planning to do, or have already started doing, in connection with the worldwide commemoration of  Earth Day 2000. We will expand our website access system to serve more organizations and individuals, and be the living information bridge between the Philippine participants and counterparts the world over.
 

SanibLakas Foundation
6173-C Gabaldon st., Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
e-mail:  infoshare@saniblakas.faithweb.com

website:  http://www.saniblakas.faithweb.com
webpage of poem/prayer (original):
     http://www.saniblakas.faithweb.com/poem-eng.htm
webpage linking to the translations made so far:
     http://www.saniblakas.faithweb.com/translations.htm

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