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Renowned author and 'mind-body' medicine guru Deepak Chopra Thursday launched an ambitious international movement at the United Nations to connect people and organisations around the world to build solutions to address conflict, poverty and environmental degradation.
The movement, christened the Alliance for New Humanity, would be a "network of networks" or peace cells, as Chopra described it, to create a "critical mass of consciousness" for bettering the world in terms of peace and social justice.
Besides Chopra, the founding members of the alliance have been Nobel laureates Oscar Arias, Irish Peace activist Betty Williams and Kerry Kenney Cuomo, daughter of assassinated United States senator Robert Kennedy and music superstar Ricky Martin, among others.
"Not one government today is making peace initiatives a central focus of its foreign policy. The alliance will marshal and organise people worldwide who are advocating ways to address global security," Chopra told journalists at the UN during a press conference organised with help from the Permanent Mission of Guatemala.
"By coming together and uniting in the commonality of our efforts, we can clearly voice the need to make peace a cornerstone of foreign policy," he said.
The international campaign of the alliance will officially kick off at a major conference called the 'Human Forum of Puerto Rico' in San Juan on December 8 to 11, 2005. The speakers at the conference will include Jeffery Sachs.
Although Chopra chose the United Nations to launch his programme, he did not stop taking a dig at the world body, especially the Security Council that is entrusted to ensure peace and security in the world.
"Ninety percent of the weapons in the world right now are being sold, traded and manufactured by the five permanent members of the Security Council. It's a great irony because we call it the Security Council, (but) it is actually the number one dealer in weapons in the world," he said.
Nonetheless, he said, in response to a question from India Abroad, that the alliance would be grateful for any help extended by the world body. "If we can enlist their help and collaboration, and they are a huge network of peacemakers, we will be very grateful," he said.