Pressenza Pressenza International Press Agency Rekohu, 29/09/09 “Don’t waste your life fighting wars! All we take with us after our death is what we have loved and what we have given. We must all pass through the eye of a needle,” were the words of Mana Cracknell, spiritual chief of the Moriori tribe on offering Rafael de la Rubia a peace baton made from a whale bone sculptured and baptised, “the eye of the needle”.

After several chants of greeting, de la Rubia presented the World March and its objectives; nuclear disarmament and resolution of conflicts by means other than violence. “I’m happy to discover the human face of this place. Your wisdom and hospitality are the seeds of peace that we are going to sew on our journey. And tomorrow, to be there at the first sun-rise of the new day, is a symbolic awakening of a new consciousness of nonviolence,” the World without Wars President enthusiastically declared.

With respect and in communion the Marchers along with New Zealand Peace campaigners and activists offered gifts to the members of the small community of 600 inhabitants of Rekohu Island. Among the gifts was the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” from the sole French member of the WM team, a portrait of Gandhi by Kate Dewes, Women’s international League for Peace and Freedom; a World March flag, a reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica, bombed by the Nazis in 1937, an olive branch, and a piece of fruit to remind us of the danger that the planet’s resources face, and a cow-bell from the sole Swiss member of the team to “shake and awaken hearts”. With three days to go until the official launch of the World March, you can clearly feel the excitement rising in the breast of the thousands of supporters of the March and its members.

*Translation: Tony Robinson

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