SEPTEMBER 2005

Pilgrimage for Tamera - the International Camp in Portugal for Peace in Palestine.

Sabine Lichtenfels

Pilgrimage to humanise money

Those who are against war need a vision for peace
The globalisation of violence must be followed by the globalisation of peace

I am going on a pilgrimage in an attempt to humanise money.
I no longer have private property, instead I dedicate my actions to the community of all creatures.
I will travel where ever I am asked to go.
Let us stop lying to ourselves: peace has to be learnt just as much as war has been.
If we are not willing to invest all of our energy, all of our money and all of our intelligence to build up peace cultures there will be no peace on earth.

What if our adventure is no longer war but peace?
What if the financing of the global war culture would be turned into the financing of a global peace culture?
What if just 1% of disposable funds would be invested to build up realistic models for a future worth living?
What if we were able to unburden the earth from her nightmare within a short period of time?

Future humankind does not need an arms industry, but a "peace industry". The development of a Peace Village, e. g. in Palestine, India or Colombia could be financed with the money needed for just one tank.

The building-up of such global Peace Villages is no longer a matter of whether we want to or not. We have to do it. If enough know-how, enough intelligence, enough determination and enough money is combined there is no reason why it should not work out. The world needs a new perspective.

We need new models for a human co-habitance and for the ethics of trust. We need new models for a non-violent co-operation with nature and creation. We need models for a new civilisation on our planet. We do not need them just with words, instead we have to build them up. Millions of young people are forced to participate in war. Millions of them would refuse if a human alternative, with the necessary mental/spiritual and material funds, was available.

To realise that we have researched innovative social models for over 25 years now. Together with other pioneers for a future worth living, the Healing Biotopes project was founded ten years ago. Concrete models for a non-violent future have arisen from this.

The experiment ‘Monte Cerro’, a 3 year training program for young peace workers in the development of peace research villages, will begin from May 2006.
What is already at our disposal:

• a training site consisting of 134 ha and about 150 voluntary teachers and co-workers.
• the social and technologically developed model for a Solar-Power-Village, that could serve as a model in the southern crisis zones on earth.
• a human co-operation network of peace workers in Israel/Palestine, Colombia and India. The next Peace Research Village is planned in Israel/Palestine as a concrete contribution for the work of reconciliation on location.

What is missing are the funds and protection for our work in public. I have decided to take this idea with me on a pilgrimage. I ask everyone who is interested in a human redistribution of funds: invest your money in a global aid as the way out of the blind alley of our time. Give your money so that future children will no longer be maimed or burnt on the battlefields.

I will go on pilgrimage to bring this idea into the public. My steps against war are no longer against existing structures, instead I invest my whole strength to build up new perspectives.

I ask every person who understands the Healing Biotope project: help to make it work. Help to bring the project into the public so that a "Movement for a Free Earth" can arise. Inform appropriate media outlets. Inform your friends. Inform potential sponsors, beneficaries, and alliances. Support this project of a global peace initiative.

I will go on pilgrimage just as the previous pilgrims did, and still do today. I start my way in order to collect for the erection of cathedrals for the new period. In previous centuries the attempt was made to express the holiness of life in harmonical figures, in geometrical patterns, and in the forms of temples and cathedrals. However, in contemporary times, they must be converted into real living conditions, of work, of living and love, in technology and organisation, to social structures and ethical ecology.

I go on pilgrimage for the humanisation of money. I do not have any private property left, instead I dedicate my actions to the community of all creatures. I will also travel by car, train or plane if I receive the money necessary for that. I will travel to places where I am called to go. If you know of a place where you wish the project to be presented I will come there to speak about it in public.

My way will begin in Germany, and from there I will travel via Switzerland, Italy and several other countries. A large part of this journey will be done on foot. My way will lead me to the ‘Holy Land’. The war in this country concerns all of us. If peace succeeds here, it could succeed globally. We can not stay in silent agony when walls are repeatedly built between people. At the beginning of November I will go on pilgrimage to Bethlehem and Jerusalem with a larger group of people to make the project of a possible peace alternative known there as well. We will also introduce the play ‘We Refuse to be Enemies’ to a wider public audience.

My first aim: the construction of a free Academy in Tamera, Portugal. I will stay on pilgrimage until I have collected the necessary funds for the construction of a training building. We need this building as the first place for the many students who want to dedicate their studies to the service of the world.

I will be on pilgrimage until I have either found
1 person who is willing to give 400.000 Euro
or 10 people who give 40.000 Euro
or 100 people who give 4.000 Euro
or 1,000 people who give 400 Euro
or 10,000 people who give 40 Euro
or 100,0000 people who give 4 Euro

I will travel to every place where I am asked to go. Everybody who thinks this idea is right can contribute something in his or her own way. Together we can make the money flow for the construction of a better world.

Warm regards
Sabine Lichtenfels