Working for Peace

On the 29th July 2011, the Prince of Saudi Arabia visited the 22nd World Scout Jamboree as a Messenger of Peace and as a Scout, promoting the use of dialogue as a means for world peace through mutual understanding.The Jamboree Radio also did and interview with the Prince, which you can listen to at the Radio site.

“The only way for peace is dialogue. We have to start with dialogue and we have to accept differences between people. Peace must be realized by and through Scouts. We are one world, one human being.”

The Messenger of Peace program is a World Scout initiative, hoping to reach 20 million people in ten years. Currently 4000 Scouts have signed on to the program.

“Peace is not the absence of war, it’s the presence of good in the community,” said Alana Bell of the World Scout Bureau. The purpose of the Messenger of Peace program is to promote individuals to enact change for the betterment of their locality.

Prince Faisal stressed, that although evil exists, we must strive to give precedence to common sense. According to Faisal, the root of all evil is greed, which Faisal believes can be filled with education, and understanding of cultures. Quoting an old Arabic aphorism, Faisal said that God will not enact change in the world unless people first change themselves.

Text by: Irene Scipioni
Photo: Magnus Fröderberg/Scouterna