Role of IOC in Sport and Peace, Olympic Truce – Myth or Reality?, Can Sport Really Build Peace?
These questions and others were discussed during the first IOC Seminar on Sport and Peace for the Middle East, hosted in Aqaba by the Jordanian Olympic Committee.
Building bridges and partnerships
The Seminar strived to achieve the following objectives:
– Bring together the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of the Middle East and North Africa region and other sports institutions to discuss what sport and peace can do to help create communication bridges between communities
– Define areas of possible partnerships among institutions at national and regional levels and encourage the implementation of joint activities
– Strengthen the sport and peace network in the Middle East, in particular with the support of the Sport and Peace Foundation of the Jordanian NOC President, HRH Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein
Strong participation
It speaks for itself that this seminar brought together representatives of 17 NOCs from the Middle East and North Africa region as well as prominent guests and speakers, including Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein; IOC members Toni Khoury – who represented the IOC President, Jacques Rogge – and General Mounir Sabet; as well as David Winiger, Special Assistant to Adolf Ogi, Special Adivsor to the United Nations Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace; and Tomas Sithole, IOC Director of International Cooperation and Development.
Main subject on their agenda: the role that sport can play in helping to unite conflicting communities. The seminar was also an occasion for Prince bin Al-Hussein to present his initiative Peace through Sport which aims to train youth leaders from areas of conflict on how to use sport as an agent for peace within their own divided communities.
Concrete recommendations
The Seminar was concluded with final recommendations in which delegates highlighted the need for sport and peace issues to be placed higher on the international agenda of sports organisations and government entities. Furthermore, they supported the IOC’s idea to organise Youth Olympic Games as a new platform to promote the Olympic Truce and Olympic values to the world’s youth. The delegates also urged the NOCs to work with their respective governments to encourage the use of sport as a peace building tool.
Photo Credit : NOC Jordan
A lively debate
From l. to r. HRH Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein, General Mounir Sabet,
Tomas Sithole and representives from NOCs of Jordan and Iraq.
Photo Credit : NOC Jordan
HRH Prince Faisal bin Al-Hussein passes a baton of peace on to Tomas Sithole.
See complete list of recommendations. (PDF)
Completed! Phase I
COMPLETED! – Phase I of the Land Patronage Program! $120,000 (USD) is presented to Harris and Maria Anastasiadou by Makis Havadjias, Co-Founder, The Monument of the Immortals. Also present were Constantinos Coucoullis, Attorney, The Monument of the Immortals, George Liveris, General Secretary, Hellenic Olympians Association, and two unnamed representatives for the sellers.
Letters from the Founders
Question
The Olympic Truce for the modern Games is a utopia – it cannot be applied because conditions in the world today are different than 3000 years ago – And even then the extend to which truce was applied in ancient Greece is questionable.
Answer
3000 years ago the human race was composed of dreamers and pragmatists; warmongers and Peace activists, Poets and Physicists, Rich and Poor – Kings and servants – Traders and Artisans.
Today none of these elements are any different than 3000 years ago. And none I personally believe will be any different in the future.
Our world will always have a variety of people all living and aspiring their dreams simultaneously and many times in diametrically opposite directions.
The truce provided that everyone could attend and participate in their own way – And the rules of the Games reduced Rank; economic position etc to an absolute level – playing field for the competitors; so the best could be proclaimed victors.
In today’s Games Truce the Father and Mother of the eternal Olympic spirit is quite alive and well – albeit IGNORED!! By the media and the masses.
We believers though seen it; we saw it most vividly at the Sydney Games.
There two warring countries – forming one nation decided to HOLD THE TRUCE for fifteen days and go to the Games in Peace with their armies still facing each other across the demilitarized zone – in the Korean Peninsula while their Olympians took the Olympic Oath and paraded and competed together in Peace under the eyes of the whole world.
These Olympians practiced the Ancient Olympic Truce Law.
We congratulate the two Korean governments and their respective Olympic Committees for their vision and ask them to practice the Olympic Truce they dreamed of at the Sydney Olympics in all future Olympiads
To the Korean nation!
We appreciate any comments!
Letters from the Founders
Letters from the Founders
The modern Olympic games is a truly International gathering of athletes who come together to compete – and choose the best in their chosen field.
In this respect the slogan citius, altious, fortius truly represents this aspect of the Games.
But the Olympic games are indeed more than just that. The Games have a social aspect, bringing together millions of people as spectators and thousand of others as volunteers.
The games also have an economic aspect for the athletes, the host city, the local and international business; they even have a political aspect – ranging from apartheid (Montreal) to exclusion of athletes due to their origin (Berlin)to murder of athletes (Munich) and to boycott (Moscow) and (Los Angeles).
Naturally whenever any one of these different aspects of the games faulters the games themselves and the Olympic spirit suffers.
In The ancient tradition the glue that held all these aspects of the games together was the Olympic Law of Truce; given by the Oracle at Delphy to Iphitous, Lycourgos and Pisa the law commanded that the games be held under conditions of peace. This law made the distant trip to Olympia and back, for visitors and athletes of combating cities, safe .
Mimicking the Gods the law temporarily elevated human dignity by setting aside vengeance animosity and anger .
The vision of the Monument of the Immortals is to revive the Olympic law of truce by building a monument to be the temple for the idea of “peace during the Olympic games” and foster thoughts and actions of modern olympians that nurture this olympic spirit.
The monument will honor the Olympian victors by having their name inscribed in their native language as a testament to their abiding by the Olympic Law of Truce. It will also provide all Olympians with a venue to articulate for future generations their very personal feeling and experiences of the Olympic spirit of the games, finally the monument will showcase these feelings to the visitor and subliminally challenge him to honor the Olympic truce during the Olympic games.
This was the way the ancients safe guarded their games.- this is the only way we shall be able to safe guard the modern Olympics both from terrorists and political bickering. The new slogan shall be citius, altius, fortius under conditions of Peace.
How Did the Monument Begin?
About the Monument
The idea of the Monument of the Immortals was conceived by the co founders, at the S.A.E. Youth conference, in Hollywood, California, which was promoting, the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
The idea was born in contrast to the Athens 2004 promo clip that promoted Athens as a modern Olympic city, at the expense of the ancient city of Olympia where the actual ancient games were held. The idea was endorsed immediately by co founder Takis Antonakopoulos, a member of the Greek Parliament attending the conference on behalf of the Greek Parliament. The two co-founders then carried the idea to the S.A.E meeting in Thessaloniki where it was endorsed by the General assembly of S.A.E.
Since then the Monument has established two non-profit foundations in USA and Cyprus. It has also created its own logo, brochures and presentations.
The foundation identified a property for the erection of the Monument, one mile away from the ancient ruins.
It has contacted an international architectural design competition and it has assembled an international jury panel of professionals from USA, Bolivia, Israel, Greece and Cyprus in ancient Olympia, were according to Olympic tradition the three finalists were selected. The German team proposition won the Gold, the Canadian team won silver and the team from Netherlands won the bronze awards.
On August 22, 2004 the foundation revived the ancient inscription by creating a glass plaque with the names of the victors of the shotput event that took place in ancient Olympia. Thus joining the two Olympic eras.
On August 15, 2004 the foundation revived the ancient prose by creating the Olympia Immortals Album and had Olympians from Athens 2004 and other Games dedicate in it.
The foundation proceeded to create samples of the glass inscriptive for the Olympians names.
In November 2005,the foundation created the pictograms for the Olympia Immortals Album for the Winter 2006 games in Turin
The foundation is presently fundraising with its Land Patrons program to purchase the land for the monument in Ancient Olympia, Greece.
What is the Monument of the Immortals?
Hippias, a fifth century B.C. sophist from Elia, was the first to compile a catalogue of Olympic victors’ names from the first Games held in Olympia, Greece in 776 B.C. To revive this tradition of the inscription of the Olympic winners names in ancient Olympia we envision the idea of creating an international monument in Olympia the birthplace of the body, spirit and soul of the Olympic Games, an everlasting tribute to the efforts of every Olympic Victor – a lighthouse to the world of the Olympic ideas.
This Monument of the Immortals will embody the nexus of human strength, exalting every Olympic victor in history and giving them an eternal home in Olympia.
Olympia, Greece
As the Hippias of our times, the Monument of the Immortals Foundation will commemorate the world’s premier athletes – human symbol of excellence and peace who personify the Olympic ideas of ethos, friendship, participation, and fair play. The monument will inscribe and wishes (with IOC approval) to broadcast worldwide the names of the victors of the 2008 games and all future games, it will provide a meeting place for all the world’s athletes at the home of the Games, it will receive the Olympic Feast at the premises of the Monument and lastly but not least it will promote the Olympic Truce movement.
Monument Presentation Update
On June 6 2005 the Monument upgraded its power point presentation to a Director Version. The work done Pro Bono by Mr. Michael Kleanthous. Our Deepest Appreciations.
On June 21 and 25, the foundation held talks with two companies to upgrade our presentation to a DVD status.
On June 16, 2005 the monument made a presentation to Ria Morfitou at the Intercollege in Cyprus. Ria was asked to make a class project of our “going to public” section of our strategic plan. Ria agreed to consider the monument as a possible class project for fall, subject to the presidents’ approval.
The Monument Travels to Greece
The Monument Travels to Greece
The Monument of the Immortals idea was presented to Greek officials on June 10, 2005. Mr. Spyros Kladas, the secretary general of the Olympic games 2004, was especially receptive. He promised to bring it to the attention of the alternate minister of culture, Mrs. Petralia, and arrange us a meeting with her.
The Monument of the Immortals documentation was presented to the HOC president, Mr. Minos Kyriakou on June 9, 2005.
On May 15, 2004 the Monument of the Immortals was presented to the president of the Hellenic Tourist Organization. Mr. Kalogeropoulos was very receptive and placed it under his auspices.
A presentation of the up to date developments of the Monument of the Immortals was given to the mayor of Olympia, on June 8, 2005. Mr. John Skoularikis asked and was briefed about the legal status of the presentation and the status of the fundraising effort for the monument.
Cyprus Olympic Committee Briefing
On May 19, 2005 a powerpoint presentation of the Monument of the Immortals was given to Evelina Georgiadou; director of the Cyprus Olympic Committee.
Ms. Evelina was very supportive of the project and promised to bring it to the attention of the IOC member, Mr. Kikis Lazaridis. Also present during the presentation was Mr. Damianos.
Monument of Immortals 
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March 20, 2007 at 3:23 am Leave a comment