Member of British House of Lords Michael Bates
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Students at the International School of Geneva are having an eventful week before breaking up Friday for a holiday week: an inspiring visit from Lord Michael Bates of the British Parliament Wednesday is being followed by the inauguration of a major building project for a new primary school in Founex which opened in September.
Bates, whose Walk for Truce is taking him on foot some 4,800km around the world, is determined to get nations to act on a UN resolution signed in October 2011, namely to use the 2012 London Olympics to take one active step each to promote peace.
The resolution has been signed before each Olympics Game, since 1993, when the practice was revived by the International Olympic Committee.
The British member of the House of Lords would like to see it become more than a handsome gesture, he says.
He met with middle school students, ages 9-12, from the campus at La Grande Boissière to give them pointers on how they can help encourage their governments to take concrete steps.
Bates notes on his Walk for Truce web site that 193 nations come together to sign:
“a Resolution declaring their commitment to observe to “pursue initiatives for peace and reconciliation in the spirit of the Ancient Games”—in the past everyone has signed it but no one has ever implemented it. We think that is a missed opportunity. We want to see the Resolution brought into reality. I have decided to walk over 3000 miles in the hope that we can persuade all signatories to the Truce to do just one thing to implement it. Not only would this bring the flame of hope into conflict zones around the world it would mean that we would rediscover the central purpose of the Ancient Games which was to provide for a pause in the endless cycle of violence through the observance of the Sacred Truce. If they could do it 3000 years ago, then surely we can do it now.”
The International School, which has grown to 4,300 students from 125 countries with the addition of a new primary school this year, Thursday celebrates the official inauguration of the school at the La Chataigneraie campus. The campus now has 1,400 students and will gradually add another 300 students in Founex, which will have a significant impact on the recent shortage of places in international schools in the region.
Eight students have died and 26 are injured, the result of a stampede in a middle school stairwell in Hunan province, China. Authorities say that a student tripped and fell as students were rushing out of evening classes, causing others to fall. Seven boys and one girl, ages 11-14, died, apparently from head injuries or being smothered, based on students’ descriptions of the accident. The school’s 3,500 students were rushing back to their dorms and most used one stairwell to avoid rainy weather, according to Xinhua, although the school has four exits. The Chinese news service says the private school has a reputation as one of the best in the region of Xiangxiang, a city of 900,000, and most of the students are from well-off families in the area. The head of the school and chairman of its board, as well as the local education director, are being held by police while the accident is investigated. The school remained open Tuesday, but the stairwell, less than 1.5 metres wide according to Xinhua, was cordoned off by police.
Links to others sites: CNN, Xinhua
