AIM-Policy Center Hold Forum on Peace and Financial Crisis

At the E-Library of the AIM Conference Center Manila, representatives from civil society, academe and private sector convened for a discussion forum on "Peace, Conflict Transformation and Global Financial Crisis." This was organized by AIM Policy Center in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Center.

The session was primarily led by Professor Johan Galtung, Founder of the Transcend International. Transcend is a peace and development network aiming to "bring about a more peaceful world by using action, education/training, dissemination and research to handle conflicts with empathy, non-violence and creativity." Professor Galtung is a respected international expert on peace-building for 50 years now.

He emphasized that in order for the Philippines to solve issues on poverty and peace, the people need to change mindset and be more creative. They should not be be limited to the old paradigms, and not see things in a very simplistic perspective but actually approach things in multi dimensions. This implies that the citizens have to break old models of economic analysis, which apparently led to the global crisis everyone is now experiencing. Instead, they have to be courageous to create new compelling solutions that they believe would address the poverty gap and need for peace.