“I am very happy to speak to you on this occasion.
In the equation of peace, hungry people are the most likely to lean towards fanaticism because they have nothing left to live for. Overlooking a segment of the world as large as Africa and the Middle East where the community is largely uneducated is a direct invitation to fight peace or to mobilise against peace.
We live in a world that is driven by the communication age, so many causes and crusades remain to a certain extent peripheral to peace. We must recognise that hunger is a grass roots issue and a root cause of social unrest.
The continuation of the debate about peace among the educated elite is completely irrelevant without addressing an issue so blindly obvious as hunger and poverty.
Hunger is an issue that is solvable. It is not an issue that is solvable by requesting that rich individuals or nations give up all of their luxuries. It is a simple equation that requires only that people accept the responsibility to address an issue like this first and foremost.
World leaders continue to go down the road of rhetoric but peace is not an institution people are free to have their own ideologies and beliefs but unless you relieve the anger of people watching their children die from hunger then you cannot stop them from being driven towards aggression.
Sometimes in the world today we are driven towards complicated solutions and this seems desperately simplistic but the truth is often simple. You just need to recognise it and address it.
The world will always be a patchwork quilt of different ideas and different beliefs and indeed what makes this world is that it should always remain entrenched in individuality. We should be continually inspired by creative people who do not conform however this individuality is not an excuse to accept war.
I am honoured to add my energy to a community that fights for making a better world for our children. As a Messenger for Peace I completely embrace the Millennium Development Goals. By growing up in my part of the world I can see that by addressing this essential platform of the fight against poverty we will achieve peace in our lifetime.”