22 Minutes past the hour

« If we are to reach real peace in the world,
 we shall have to begin with the children. » (Gandhi)

The Round-and-Blue Project is inviting the children and young people from all over the world to unite for Peace and to participate actively in the development and creation of a worldwide Choir of Hope in which the Round-and-Blue Hymn to Peace will be sung by everyone in their own language at the very same moment all around the world, on Saturday October 24 2009 at 11.22 A.M., United Nations time in New York City. The singing shall be in unison with the Trumpets of Hope, the synchronizing signal unifying our voices in a common hope: Peace.

The Hymn to Peace lasts 66 seconds. Its text is made up of six different phrases while the 11 notes melody is identical for each phrase. Why six? Because the United Nations Organization has six official languages: English, Mandarin (Chinese), Arabic, Spanish, Russian and French.

If you want Peace, make way for Peace.

The development of the Choir of Hope implies the actualization of a series of planetary rendezvous. The planetary rendezvous must be preceded by a multitude of smaller size rendezvous whose format may vary at will: a classroom, a school, a school network; a home, a village, a city, a region; etc. However, for the sustained growth of the Choir of Hope, the most important format is probably the “microrendezvous”, individualized or small group rendezvous, always 22 minutes past the hour, a format which shall motivate a multitude of Peace-thirsty “ordinary” people to sing the Hymn to Peace on a regular basis, even daily, at any 22 minutes past the hour of their choice. At that level, the singing of a single phrase may be sufficient. After all, beyond the lyrics and the melody, hope is in the hopeful spirit which actually takes root in the hopeful heart of every ordinary person. As a result, the 22^nd minute past the hour becomes a temporal landmark of common hope, a moment of emotional gathering for Peace, and the usual “minute of silence” is being replaced by 66 seconds of synchronized hope.

How much is it going to cost you? Nothing! Hope is priceless. That is why no royalties are being imposed on the Hymn to Peace or on the logo of the Round-and-Blue Project. No donation will be accepted. At our web site you will not find one bit of space available for commercial advertising, but you will find a great deal of space available for ministries of education from all over the world, for organisations working for Peace and for the respect of human dignity - The sustained leadership of Women for Peace is indispensable to the coming of Peace - and above all for individual initiatives supporting the Choir of Hope “Each individual action for Peace is important in our times of instability”(Ilya Prigogine). The creation of the Choir of Hope is not a matter of marketing. It touches the hearts of “ordinary” people. Round-and-Blue is the project of the “ordinary” people.

The realization of the Round-and-Blue Project takes into consideration the development of a new telecommunication mode called “SUNIS”. This word is the result of the regrouping of the first letters of the following words: Signal for the Unification of Nations Intercollectively Synchronized. It might be compared to what goes on at opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, but in the opposite direction. In essence, rather than having a given “star” at centre stage singing, usually in just one language, a special song for the occasion, a song which will be heard passively by a multitude over the four corners of the planet, we do have instead, over the four corners of the planet, a multitude of ‘ordinary’ people who have agreed with solidarity to take part in a rendezvous of hope which will be in the form of a unifying song that shall be intoned simultaneously in as many languages as possible.

Hatred is a legacy unworthy of our children.

The creation of a worldwide Choir of Hope in our unstable times may not be obvious. But history shows that “Necessity is the mother of invention”.

May hope blossom! Nil Parent, Quebec City, Canada, February 5, 2008

Translated from French by James C. Lebens