ELCA NEWS SERVICE February 23, 2004 Peace Requires Action, Risk, Say Lutheran College Forum Speakers 04-024-JB NORTHFIELD, Minn. (ELCA) -- A former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, a former prime minister of Norway and director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), leaders of an international organization that lends money to impoverished people and the director of an interfaith youth social-action organization brought different perspectives in peacemaking to participants in the annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum, held here at St. Olaf College. St. Olaf is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The annual Peace Prize Forum aims to promote peace through discussion and a call to action for participants. More than 2,700 people were registered for this year's Forum. "Imagine a different kind of future than [what] we are experiencing now," said the Rev. Christopher M. Thomforde, president of St. Olaf College, in his opening remarks to the Feb. 20-21 Forum. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the United States has "failed miserably" in sharing its wealth with other people in the world, and he said it is the responsibility of the U.S. government and its people to help others, in a Feb. 21 keynote speech. In her keynote speech, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian prime minister and former WHO director general, said environmental health and human health are related. Politicians must face up to significant environmental and health challenges or face an uncertain future, she said. She cited the threat of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases, global climate changes and threats to food security. "This is not a worse-case scenario," said Brundtland, a physician. "It is where we are headed today unless we take action." If people choose to meet these challenges, Brundtland said, it "calls for powerful political leadership" and partnerships with the private sector. Politicians will tackle important environmental and health problems if they can see there's a definite link to economic health, Brundtland said. For example, Brundtland said a massive oil spill in the North Sea in the 1980s was a turning point for Norway's politicians, who saw a link between Norway's economic health and the environmental disaster. Pollution, particularly carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles, is still increasing, resulting in threats to human health and causing climate changes, Brundtland said. The U.S. government has been slow to act on this because it is not willing to challenge U.S. automakers enough, she suggested. "[This reluctance] can be influenced during a year when elections are on the agenda and where politicians of both parties will be meeting their constituents and telling them what they stand for," Brundtland said. "There's a chance when there's an election if it's used in the right way." The most impoverished people on earth are the most vulnerable to environmental challenges and disasters, such as storms and floods, and these events eventually impact health, she said. "'Such dramatic events place a disproportionate burden on the poor," Brundtland said, adding that their overall health is a "yardstick" for how people succeed in addressing these issues. "An investment in health pays major dividends," she said. "The collective action necessary to turn the tide of poverty and environmental degradation and illness can be done. Healthy people, healthy planet -- these are linked. It works both ways." In a question-and-answer session, she urged the audience to exercise "moral responsibility" and "contribute to the welfare of the world." During her visit to St. Olaf, the college awarded her an honorary doctorate. FINCA Loans Aim to Empower Women in Developing Countries The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), a 19-year-old organization that lends money "to the poorest of the poor" in 24 countries, has focused its efforts on supporting nations through "village banking" systems, said John Hatch, founder and president. By supporting mothers with loans, the women have been able to start businesses with other women, benefiting their families, especially children, he said. FINCA has 17,000 village banks and has served 700,000 families worldwide, Hatch said. Last year it loaned $200 million through village banks, and the repayment rate has exceeded 97 percent, he said. "Poor people don't want or need charity," Hatch said. "All they need is a chance." Hatch said individuals can help impoverished people more effectively than governments can. "God gave us free will. He gave us free will for a purpose," Hatch said, adding that "the world's most lethal weapon of mass destruction is poverty." Build for the Future, Young Adult Leader Says Saying the United States is the most religiously diverse country in the world, Dr. Eboo Patel, executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, based in Chicago, reminded the audience that "the future belongs to those who build it." Patel heads an international interfaith organization that brings together young people from different faith groups for social-action projects. Patel said U.S. citizens have the ability to "move the creation into the vision of the creator." "How do you become the best you can be and give that gift the best way you can?" he asked the audience. "Love what you do. Try to give it as a gift to the world as broadly and widely as you can." Patel said it not his business to know how each person is in relationship with God, but he said he is more concerned about how humans relate to one another. He said people should live in a way that is "mutually enriching." In response to a question about how youth should keep faith in an increasingly secular society, Patel said: "Nurture a sense of the Divine." During the Forum, participants attended a series of workshops to teach peacemaking skills and other workshops that addressed a variety of peace-related subjects. In addition to St. Olaf, the other ELCA colleges involved in the Nobel Peace Prize Forum are Augsburg College, Minneapolis; Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill.; Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.; and Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. The colleges collaborate to put on the annual Forum with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo. Founded in 1989, the Forum is the Institute's only such program or academic affiliation outside Norway. Norwegian immigrants founded each of the five sponsoring colleges, and their sponsorship recognizes Norway's international peace efforts and offers opportunities for Nobel Peace Prize laureates, diplomats, scholars, students and the general public to peacemaking. -- -- -- A video news story on the 2004 Nobel Peace Forum can be found at http://www.elca.org/co/news/videos/video.index.html on the ELCA Web site. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news