Ilco Van Der Linde 's Blog

“We acknowledge that there is always more than one truth. Impartial, we aim to bring opposites together to prevent future conflicts. That is why we encourage dialogue, disarmament, peace education, cultural understanding and other non-violent solutions to armed conflicts”

It is 1 o’clock in the night train from Paris to Madrid. After a successful week with a lot of exciting interviews and good meetings with new partners, I am traveling back home to the south of Spain, together with my almost 91 years old father who can not fly anymore due to
health problems. I am sitting on the ground with my laptop, somewhere in a corner of the gangway and I am working on our new Vision Paper. Some Spanish teenagers gather around me. One asks what I am doing this whole time: ‘’Do you not sleep?”.  “I am working on a
peace project”. “Can I read it?” “Sure, why not?” After reading it: “Phew, you are cool, you!” That’s nice to hear, but I don’t feel cool at all. I feel tired and a bit lonely. I miss my children. But working is a good medicine, especially concentrating on the finishing touch of this ‘MasterPeace Vision & Works 2012 – 2020’. Weighing every word over and over again, because each word should have a meaning, a useful connotation; if it does not, I need to
leave it out. Probably this is the nit-picking part people don’t expect from a cool project. I try to integrate details from feedback given after hundred times of presenting the concept in the last year. Which words worked best? What raised questions? Even here my daughters played a role. Lately for instance my oldest daughter Bloem (who turned 15 years old last week) said: “Daddy, I heard you saying that MasterPeace is neutral, but isn’t that what the Swiss were during World War II? The United States and Holland were neutral at the start of that
war as well and for that reason they were sending back Jews who fled from Germany… So, isn’t neutral a bit cowardly?”. Uh, to be honest, yes, so I must use another word. One week later our potential American Founding Partner Search for Common Ground was very clear on what word I should use: impartial; the right alternative, somewhere between neutral (too passive) and inclusive (too active).

After one hour the kids went to their cabin. I thought I was too boring… but half an hour later they were back again, six of them. “We discussed your project. Can we help you? Maybe our chocolate biscuits will help?” What a nice gesture! 
Clearly they weren’t neutral any longer, but strangely enough they made me think: can one be impartial and give chocolate cookies at the same time? Where does impartiality ends and inclusiveness start? I recalled the meeting I had with Red Cross last week. They provide medicines to fighting parties during a war. I asked them how they see themselves: neutral, impartial or inclusive.
Impartial was the answer. So here we go! We’re not neutral any longer. Impartial it is. Bloem, Search for Common Ground and Spanish young people with chocolate cookies in my night train: thanks a lot for the co-creation! Creating impartiality together…

The Palestinian cab driver parked in front of the brand new, white and prestigious building of the United States Institute for Peace. “Peace. It’s so important for America”, he said and I thought that he was impressed by this building, that tries to reflect the new wind that blows since President Obama. “Peace”, he said again, “it’s pivotal to the American economy.” I was positively surprised; would he have read about this recently published research that proved that each dollar invested in conflict resolution is six times more effective than dollars
invested in new wars and weaponry? Did he express what I often tell to companies: conflict prevention means stability means a better climate for economy? No. “You know, peace, it’s such an intelligent system. First we tell to the whole world somewhere a certain president can’t be trusted. Then we freeze all the money of that country. Then we start to throw bombs on their hats; bombs that created jobs over here. Then we send all those diplomats, who
earn in one month what I do in a year. And finally we get all the contracts to rebuild that country again, bringing us income for the third time. And this we call peace.”

I had to run to my meeting, but how can I enter ‘the holy temple of such a system’? Or
even worse, would I slowly and unconsciously become part of that system? On the
other hand the USA did give him a job and a place to live relatively safely; and he has freedom of speech too. “You know, whatever system rules the world, it’s still made by fellow human beings. So we can also go for another system.
And you must believe me that I constantly meet American people who work for that other truth and another meaning of peace.” “I know, I know; go and run, brother!”

I was in the USA for ten days to involve some first good stakeholders for MasterPeace over here, ‘cause a truly global project wont rock without the States. My visit was taken very seriously. No meeting was canceled, nothing got delayed – everybody was strictly in time - our documents and site were studied thoroughly, sharp questions were raised. What a pleasure to work in a climate with an abundance of professionalism! Founders, CEO’s and sometimes seven officers or like-minded organizations at the same time showed up for my presentations.
Network dinners could get organized within several hours. And along with some good feedback there always was excitement about the concept and about the progress and materials I could show, thanks to two years of preparation.

In the hip and successful café-stage-restaurant-library ‘Busboys and Poets’ in Washington
founder Andy Shallal listened silently for 20 minutes and then sighed: ‘Wow,  this gives me goose-bumps man!’ He offered me a gorgeous organic hamburger and then explained how people ask him weekly to organize another Peace Ball with some top artists as the one he organized for President Obama in 2008.
‘Constantly I refuse, but now I know the next Peace Ball will be this year, to launch MasterPeace in the USA’. Another memorable compliment was given by our new board member Craig Zelizer, professor on conflict resolution at the Georgetown University: “I work in this field for over 20 years and I hardly ever saw a concept as attractive, innovative and comprehensive as MasterPeace.”

Many of my meetings and network dinners were at inspiring places as the 7th floor of the
Radisson Hotel, overlooking the smashing Times Square with its explosion of lights. I visited a cool campaigning company in Soho, an artist in the heart of multi cultural Queens, the Dance for Peace founder in a funky Village bar and the 70 years old and highly respected founder of Seeds for Peace in her own arty house. And in between the meetings I found break dancers in the subway, rappers on Washington Square or suddenly an eavesdropping millionaire who wanted to learn more about MasterPeace. And hey, is Keith Sweat really
performing around the corner tonight? Let’s go!

Working in New York or Washington is a sort of magic. You can feel and almost touch
Opportunities and Desire in general and for Innovative peace building in particular. During my 25 high level meetings I’ve met above hundred dedicated, intelligent optimists who clearly represent a peaceful America. Getting them on board was literally 24/7 my focus until a cheap flight dropped me at 4AM on Dublin Airport. Here I felt asleep on top of my new iPad in a little corner of the Burger King. Satisfied but tired, dead tired. No magic at all.

“There’s magic in everything. And some loss, to even things out” – Lou Reed

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine you wish to shout “We Need Dialogue” to all parties in Syria, to Iran and Israel, to North and South Sudan and to all other parties  who seem to forget that there might be more than one truth; how can you be heard? How can you get visibility for your heartfelt message of peace? Now here’s your chance! MasterPeace has launched a new global initiative to let
your voice be heard, thanks to many involved top cartoonists from all continents. See here how Brazilian cartoonist Cau Gomez visualized “We Need Dialogue”.

How does it work? We have this nice animation film available to tell you more: http://goo.gl/Eyvji. Clear, no? Don’t forget to share it with your friends. It’s  so simple that we expect thousands to join. Tweet your message, add #MasterPeace2014 and cartoonists all over the world might get inspired by your text and create a catchy cartoon! If you’re not on Twitter you can also leave your max 140 characters message on www.facebook.com/MasterPeace2014. And if your message turns out to be the source of inspiration for the winning cartoon you win a
flight ticket to the MasterPeace Concert on the International Day of Peace, September 21st in 2014!

I sent in my first two tweets for Your Peace Re-Tweeted: “No one is born with hatred or intolerance. #MasterPeace2014” and the other (inspired by my regular Sunday-soccer afternoon) “Imagine. Israel-Iran 0-0. Sudan-RSS 0-0. No Winners. No losers. No violence. No bombs. Global Zero. #Fairplay #MasterPeace2014”. Let’s see if I might win a flight ticket to my friends in Cairo. But if yours is better I am totally fine! I guess I will go
there anyway…

We developed this campaign ‘Your Peace Re-Tweeted’ with our media partner Cartoon Movement. Find some first cartoons on their website: http://goo.gl/Qel9v. We connect top cartoonists from all over the world to you and provide you with an opportunity to be heard and noticed. Modern, attractive and true global co-creation between artists and people in the street; hardly anything can be more ‘MasterPeace’ than this, don’t you think!

And we’ll publish many of the cartoons in newspapers, magazines and websites. The company Boomerang Free Card helps us to have hundreds of thousands special cards to promote MasterPeace and the International Day of Peace September this year.

And this is just one example of how we gradually grab the attention of the world for the MasterPeace movement. Interviews, TV programs, presentations, social media, virals, events and activities of our clubs in 20 countries, our educational program, tours with artists… and this is just the beginning! The best is still to come! Bottom-up, like a pyramid upside down, we grow towards our expected global tipping point by the International Day of
Peace in 2014. Share your peace Tweet now and make us grow further, OK?

 

 

 

 

There are five ‘Dress for Success’ shops in the Netherlands. If you’re preparing for a job interview, when you have no money and you need a styling advice, ‘Dress for Success’ is your place to be. They help you find you the right clothes, shoes and make-up to impress your future boss. Thanks to reinvigorated self-esteem 50% of the applicants get the job they aimed for! Dress for Success gets its clothes from people who are fed up with their 6th Armani
skirt or 4th Manolo pump; if they are still spotless and undamaged they deserve a new proud owner!

I love simple concepts with a clear win-win for everybody. And this one also shows the value of branding for content. Thanks to the makeover the first impression of the candidate is positive, convincing and attractive. Kinetics research shows that within 30 seconds you are judged on this first impression. Impress to make people listen and open their eyes for your message: its part of the MasterPeace approach!

Last week in Egypt I joined a ‘Boot Camp’ of our MasterPeace Clubs. I told our clubs about the importance of branding, framing, eye-catching PR, campaigning and ‘the nature of our coolness’, in order to finally get your content across. Mostly topics hardly ever discussed with peace builders from countries as Afghanistan, Sudan or Colombia. My companion Mohamed presented his case study on how Wikipedia gradually became successful and shared many other inspiring examples of new ‘2.0 approaches’ and explained about seeding, cascading and how to collectively build up towards our global Tipping Point by 2014. We worked on a SWOT analysis for each and every club to enlarge their fundraising capacities and shared a long list of crowd funding opportunities, most of them still totally unknown.

But there was more. Gambia explained how they use butter trade; they exchange talents and services without cash and building debts for peace initiatives. Maasai warrior Ezekiel (MasterPeace Kenya) explained how story-telling was part of his strategy, the representatives of South Africa explained their focus on job creation and entrepreneurial skills – “because a hungry man is an angry man” (Marley) said Mark, the marvelous South African facilitator of the camp - and the doctor and wiz kid from Afghanistan explained why they want to involve the extremely popular Afghan Idols version (Afghan Stars) and get their winners on the stage of the MasterPeace Concert on the International Day of Peace 2014.

On top of this American mediation experts trained everyone on the power of dialogue and an Egyptian photographer trained everyone on filming and photography; “otherwise nobody gets the picture of what you're doing”.

Our first global club meeting turned out to be a totally equal, honest and mesmerizing exchange of knowledge and passion. And all the time I was thinking: this is why we develop MasterPeace!! Making peace builders more effective, attractive, and stronger. To get them dressed for success.

Charles from Sierra Leone explained how he lost his uncle (“his head was chopped off in front of me”) and how his older brother was abducted and forced to become a child soldier. He told me how MasterPeace inspired him to work for a peaceful future in his country and left me speechless. And Charles brought me a present: a hand-made necklace with the symbol of Africa. Two days later I showed my necklace during a global marketing meeting of our Founding Partner Triodos Bank and explained to them how we must use all the power we have to support successful peace builders as Charles. And yes, they decided to reach out to their global network of millions of clients. I know for sure the necklace helped me to get them excited.
Thanks to Charles I was dressed for success too.

Thursday February 8th, 2012.  This day – one week ago - was one of those crucial moments on the road towards a globally successful MasterPeace. At breakfast I spoke with three TV companies, who told me that they decided to team up with us for the coming years. They will develop MasterPeace related TV formats, broadcast informative fundraising programs for
us and will probably use MasterPeace as the theme for a very popular international music program. I cannot give you more details now (later this year I will!), but for sure this partnership will bring MasterPeace closer to millions of people; possibly even by the end of this year.

In the afternoon I was invited by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery to come to the famous ‘Rijksmuseum’ in Amsterdam for a show alongside all the major masterpieces of Rembrandt. With suits and ties the directors of all the important NGOs such as Greenpeace and Oxfam gathered to hear what kind of donation they would receive. The Postcode Lottery is the third largest donor of the world, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (USA) and the Welcome Trust (UK), and this year they were able to grant 284 million Euros, thanks to the 2,5 million people who join the lottery on a monthly basis. This year four new beneficiaries would be chosen and guess what? The duo IKV Pax Christi (Founding Partner of MasterPeace) and MasterPeace was selected as one of these four! This means that we will both get 250,000 Euro per year for the coming five years!! And of course this isn’t only helping us to become more
professional, effective and sustainable, but also this grant will bring more status and positive PR that may help to bring other new partners on board. But above all it is an acknowledgement of the value of our works, our goals and our partnership; co-creation pays off.  

I think this milestone marks the start of harvest time. Seven months ago a psychic friend already forecasted this. In July she warned me that the signs weren’t right for big long-term financial commitments.  And this turned out to be true, because several times the signing of big contracts was postponed in the last months. She also told me that I had to wait till…February 2012. Amazing no? From that moment on business would gradually improve. I am very willing to believe her of course. By the way, a Chinese friend predicted the same. At the end of January the Year of the Dragon started and that would bring additional courage, power and success. But maybe this harvest time just related to what I wrote in my blog two weeks ago:
energy and perseverance conquers all?

During the Lottery dinner harvest time kept on announcing itself. I shared my table with
the director of Amnesty International, who told me that lately he shows the 2.0 website of MasterPeace to people as ‘the future of activism’. What a great compliment, given by an organization I really admire.  The director of War Child – another organization that I like a lot - shared the same table. He said that at the end of March he may be in the position to team up with us as Founding Partner. What a mesmerizing co-creations this will bring! But I was almost equally energized by a waitress who suddenly stepped out of her role, embraced me and said “I am so happy for us!”. She often works for MasterPeace as a volunteer and celebrated the
donation as if it was also her success. And she’s right!  

I am often booked by companies to speech about my work and about my philosophies in general, mostly those related to MasterPeace. These speeches always bring about new donations and network for our undertaking, but the last  time the attendees took my call to action very literally: at the end of my presentation people spontaneously dropped banknotes at my feet; in total almost 1000 Euro… Maybe they thought I was some kind of verbal pole dancer? Anyway, I did like the gesture and it was my own ‘fault’ because I said: if you don’t act it may not work at all! And probably it was also the ‘fault’ of ‘the cosmos’ because actually all presentations last week went very well!
 
Nucleus of my speech was: do not underestimate how influential you can be and do not underestimate will power. I also elaborated on the good old statement ‘peace building is a verb’. And I started my speech by honoring one of the great men who inspired me during my life: Vaclav Havel. Last week this former artist, revolutionary and president of the Czech Republic died and tomorrow he will be buried. In the seventies he was one of the first people in his country who dared to stand up against the communist dictators. In 1978 he wrote the visionary essay titled ‘Power to the Powerless’. Eleven years later he managed to transform all the anger and frustration in his country into a beautiful symbolic action: hundreds of thousands of people came to the main square of Prague to shake their key-rings. The message was clear: the key to the house of parliament, the key to the power and the key to the future belong to us, the people. And these keys turned out to be a stronger weapon than all the guns and tanks of the immense army that stayed in the barracks.
 
The best way to honor Vaclav Havel seems to be that we get inspired by this beautiful and effective action; powerful and peaceful at the same time. If all the positive, open-minded people of the world unite and start working for peace on an inspiring way we will just be unstoppable.
 
Is this optimism or hope? Let us honor Havel again by using a quote out of his poem ‘Hope’; a quote that is very relevant for MasterPeace too:
 
"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -  Vaclav Havel
 
Happy X-mas to you!

“We cannot be both the world’s leading
champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of arms” – Jimmy Carter

Cartoon

Former USA president Jimmy Carter is right, but what did he actually do to change this absurd contradiction? To be honest: nothing. And what did his successors do? You might say that former president George W. Bush solved the issue by giving up on peace. For sure the USA is still by far the leading supplier of arms; 60% of all arms! And the sales increased.

Yesterday the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published this news: “Sales of arms and military services by the largest arms-producing companies—the SIPRI Top 100—continued to increase in 2010 to reach $411.1 billion”.

http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/27-feb-2012-Business-as-usual-for-top-arms-producers

Despite the financial crisis governments all over the world continue to buy weapons and each year more than the year before. And this 411 billion is ‘only’ the turnover by the top 100 companies; none of the Chinese companies (no data given) nor all the other companies, outside this top 100, have been included so for that reason some researchers have calculated that the world spent over 600 billion in 2010 on new weaponry. And that is enough money to bring food, medicines and education to those who need this desperately and in the meantime solve the financial crisis of Greece. So that is why I often say that there is actually no money problem, but there is a priority problem.

Our leaders do not spend the money on the development of their own people. Not only in developed countries, but also in developing countries. The new state of South Sudan (RSS) for instance, happens to use half of its total budget to build an army and buy new weaponry, while many of its civilians have no access to sufficient food, health and education.


Yes, you are right, this is absurd. But one thing is even more absurd in my opinion: that hardly anyone is raising questions. That we all act as if we can’t do anything about it. Some say we need weapons to defend ourselves. But you’re defending yourself against the weapons of the other. Iran and Israel both claim the right to have nuclear arms, but they could also sit down with all the countries in the region to get rid of all nuclear arms. That would be a groundbreaking route towards sustainable safety, no?! By the way, most weapons bought for ‘defense’ are often finally used against the own civilians, like these Russian bombs in Damascus… And how much safety do weapons bring when the owner decides to replace them by new ones? Trucks loaded with ‘old’ AK-47 machine guns travel through Africa from conflict to conflict and they bring no defense at all. They get sold to both parties and only fuel each conflict.


Some say we need the jobs, created by these companies. But with leadership and vision you can solve this too. What about an obligation to those companies to reduce weapon sales 5% per year? In 20 yearseach company can slowly transform towards other products and markets. You think this will never happen? My answer is: not if you don’t ask for it.

Because here comes what I see as the most interesting part of all the SIPRI figures: 89% of all the sales of this top 100 companies is done by companies in the USA or Western Europe. 89%!! This means that 89% of the weaponry is produced by companies in countries with democratic systems. This means that the public in these countries can decide to vote for
the reduction of weapon sales. People in freedom can decide to use their freedom to protect others. And people in buying states, such as South Sudan, can stand up and demand for other priorities. It’s about time that civil society doesn’t wait any longer and raises its voice.

Especially now we are slowly approaching 2015, the year in which all governments of the world promised to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals. And of course MasterPeace – growing towards its first global apotheosis in… 2014 – will be a platform for each and everyone asking to put bread above bombs.

PS. The cartoon is designed by the Czech cartoonist Richard Svitalsky for the MasterPeace campaign Your Peace Retweeted that will be launched on March 15th 2012. Hundreds of new inspiring cartoons will be produced soon!!

Yesterday, near Ramallah. Rain is pouring down on a narrow road. An Israeli truck and a Palestinian bus with school children collide. The bus flips over. Six little Palestinian children (all aged 4) and a teacher die instantly. All others are injured. Terrible, no? On Facebook several Israeli wrote these replies:





Benny: “Calm down, they are Palestinian Children.” 11 likes
Tali: “It seems like they are Palestinian children.. Thank God..” 4 likes
Tal: “Thank God they are Palestinians”
Ajala: “Great less terrorists!!!!” 10 likes
Itai: “Thank God its Palestinians, let it be such bus every day.” 9 likes
Aleyah: “Calm down, Its a bus with Palestinian children, lets pray there will be deaths, or at least severe injuries, this is great news to start the day with.”

 
Of course these replies (removed after some hours) are totally sick. And it makes you sad, so
sad. What if you are Palestinian? Or even worse, what if these children were your children? New hatred will grow as a result of these comments. With these comments Israel is its own worst enemy.

Suddenly these days we see it everywhere, parties or people being their own worst enemy; the German president, Mitt Romney, the Dutch Labor Party, the Greek… all of them dragging themselves down, being their own worst enemy. No need for others to defeat them. But let’s go back to Israel.

I really hope that in the coming days the majority of Israeli will condemn these sick comments, will show real respect for the dead and – let’s pray for that – will finally come to meaningful steps forward to create two safe states, where children on both sides can grow up with less hatred. I know that on both sides people are working for this fragile dream, because I met those peace activists in person in the last year. They share a dream of coexistence that is continuously
damaged by fools and extremists on both sides. A dream that requires true guts, vision and perseverance, as you can also see in this beautiful and price-winning documentary “Israel vs. Israel”, that is now touring through the USA: http://www.israelvsisrael.com/

Finally the new, positive leaders must arise from within Israel itself. And eventually they will. I have to believe this and help to make this happen. Otherwise these Facebook messages kill my motivation for building togetherness.
 

Last weeks Thursday featured World AIDS Day. Nine years ago I started in the Netherlands, Indonesia and South Africa, as co-founder of dance4life, to use dance and innovative campaigning to break silence and taboos around HIV and AIDS. As International CEO I was able to spread this concept around the globe supported by an ever-growing team of employees, volunteers, partners and other supporters. And today the project exists in 30 countries involving hundreds of thousands young people. :

Should you have missed the program on dance4life on the Dutch TV

Dance4life is no longer dependent on me. As founder I think you should aim to make yourself replaceable within some years and constantly ask others to feel and take ownership. In 2007 I handed over my tasks to successor Eveline Aendekerk and started to travel with my family through Africa and the Middle East for two years. People ask me if this was a difficult decision all the time, but no, it wasn’t. For a certain period a missed my team and the thrill of being successful, but this journey was amazing and brought me new ideas. And you know, if you treat your ‘child’ as your possession you block its growth, it can’t overcome fragility (because what if you can’t continue for whatever reason?) and as a founder yourself you can’t use your skills to develop something new with all lessons learned.

As you know I initiated MasterPeace two years ago and it is following the same roadmap of development towards a truly international initiative. But this time it goes faster, thanks to these lessons I learned. This time I started with leadership in two (instead of one) continents; Europe (Netherlands) and Africa (Egypt). Secondly we got right from the start Founding Partners and board members who work internationally, such as Heba Ramzy – Head Corporate Affairs Microsoft Middle East & Africa - who joined two weeks ago. And materials get translated faster,:

such as this MasterPeace infomercial in Japanese

But the biggest difference with nine years ago is the existence of all this new and social media spreading news way faster then ever before. Without these new tools it wouldn’t have been possible to work with MasterPeace in 20 countries already within two years after the start. Even in the north of Uganda former child soldier Moses Kyamaka found MasterPeace through the Internet and is now one of its most active supporters.

Please read his great story here

Or what about this story, emphasizing rapid (it all happened within 24 hours) and borderless growth: a Finnish woman who follows me on Twitter met a French composer during a train ride in Finland. He told her about his ‘Peace through Music’ orchestra in Congo with a lead singer out of the Central African Republic and on a mobile phone they watched his YouTube film. She showed him our Passion Statement and some hours later the composer contacted me in Spain. I directly informed my Egyptian companion Mohamed who was working on his iPad at the airport of Beirut, where Ogivly Middle East decided to support us on global PR in the coming years. Our world can be amazingly small and connected nowadays!

Talking about Beirut, one of my favorite poets (Gibran) is born in Lebanon. In ‘The Prophet’ he wrote a great poem called ‘Children’, which is very relevant for founders too. You can find it on Google. Some lines:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,