Kim Yersu

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Peace promoters from around the world have gathered in Seoul to participate in a festival presented by Kyung Hee University. The university, recognized by UNESCO in 1993 for its contributions toward promoting peace education, has hosted an international peace conference every year to celebrate the ``U.N. International Day of Peace'' since 1981.

This year the conference has been combined with four other peace events under the 2007 Peace BAR Festival. It will be held at Kyung Hee University and the Shilla Hotel, from Nov. 7-9 with worldwide participation including U.N. officials, Korean and international scholars, college students, and local citizens.

In an interview with The Korea Times Monday Kim Yersu, rector of Global Academy for Neo-Renaissance, Kyung Hee's specialized organization for peace, explained the meaning of the festival's title, ``BAR.''

``This festival will offer an open place where the peace experts can seek a new age of humanity for peace and prosperity. Thus, the ultimate hope is to create a global human society that is spiritually `Beautiful,' materially `Affluent,' and humanly `Rewarding (BAR),''' Kim said.

The conference has invited many foreign speakers including Jerome Binde, director of UNESCO, Paris; professors Rob Stones and Bob Jessop from the universities of Essex and Lancaster, U.K. respectively; Wolfgang Welsch, a professor from the University of Jena in Germany; and John Ikenberry, of Princeton University in the United States.

Also, among participants are professors from Kyung Hee, Yonsei, Konkuk, Ewha Womans and Seoul National universities.

This festival will feature the World Civic Forum (WCF) Preparatory Conference. Kyung Hee has promoted civic organizations over the 58 years since its foundation. As part such efforts, the school has proposed to co-host the World Civic Forum with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2009 to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

``Globalization is a very important issue nowadays. While the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a pro-globalization organization pursuing infinite competition excluding humanity, the World Social Forum (WSF) is an anti-globalization group claiming globalization has deepened the gulf between the haves and have-nots,'' Kim said. ``The newly planned WCF will be a middle way group of the two organizations and pursue globalization with a human face,'' he added.

In addition to these events, the 2007 Kyung Hee Youth Forum, the Symposium for Kyung Hee Community and the 2007 Kyung Hee Volunteer Fair are scheduled during the peace festival.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr