Report from ICF President Bernard Margueritte, Caux, July 2005
I welcome you all wholeheartedly. It is an emotional pleasure to be here in Caux once again (for me that's the 10th time!) and to be together. It's also great to be able to welcome newcomers. But before we start introducing ourselves, I like to make three statements:
- I think we should all start by honouring by a moment of silence the memory of those, who died in London, victims of the terrorism. Let us also express at the same time our admiration for the people of London, who in these dramatic circumstances showed the composure, dignity and courage for which Londoners have been known and respected for centuries.
- On a much more pleasant note I like to say how happy I am that this year Hugh Nowell and Carolyn are with us. I would have hoped that they stayed away last year only to show us how empty Caux and the ICF's sessions can be without them. It's a great joy to be together.
- This year is Bill Porter's year. Well, every year is Bill Porter's year. But this one more than ever. This is the 15th anniversary of the ICF, founded and always inspired by Bill. The ICF is Bill Porter. Remarkably we are also celebrating the publication of Bill's book, a book that will inspire generations of journalists to come and show them the right way, should they ever forget what is their mission.
This has been, as usual - maybe more than usual - a year where frustrations and disappointments met with joy and satisfactions. We are growing. We do have great people and great programmes, and it is frustrating to see that the lack of means does not allow us to realise our full potential. We had promises from sponsors that have not been realised the past year, as we anticipated. Let's hope it will change soon. As it is, I had to reduce my travel to the strict minimum and I was not able to attend neither the IPI congress nor the one of the WAN, which is truly a shame and a blow for any media group that wants to be recognized in the field. At this point I like to thank my family and first my wife, who for the first time - and for a variety of reasons - is not with me in Caux this year.
To work as the president of the ICF is certainly making our family life more difficult, to begin with in the financial area. For the past two years the finances of the ICF have not allowed the president not only to get an appropriate job loss compensation, but even the reimbursement of the expenses made. The support of my wife and my daughter have made up for it, with their conviction that this is a noble task that has to be done anyway. I like also to thank my son Eryk. I was happy, thanks to the fact that he is an Air France pilot, to use the few very cheap tickets I could received, not for any tourist travels but for ICF duties.
A year ago our main goals were the following: to expand geographically, to build new partnerships, to promote a decentralisation of our activities by building national chapters. Happily, in spite of all difficulties we have made significant progress in all of these areas. I have been in India where we are a partner of IofC-India for the conference in Panchgani next November (before that we all met for a preparatory meeting in Berlin). After our first conference in Africa, we will have our first in Asia.
New partnerships have been established or reinforced with "Positive Network" (they participated in the conference in Le Touquet and will take part in the next one in Krynica, Poland, in September). As a matter of fact our cooperation with the Polish "Eastern Institute", organising the biggest east-west conference in Krynica with 1500 participants and among them many presidents and heads of governments of central and east European countries, is growing. Krynica is the place to meet hundreds of people, also media people, from Ukraine, Lithuania, Byelorussia and neighbouring countries. It is important for the ICF to be in touch with those people, and particularly for me, since I used to. be also for many years a correspondent in Ukraine, Lithuania and Georgia. I am happy to note here that Bob Webb has had also excellent contacts with media people in the Ukraine, and he will in due course tell us about it.
I had the immense pleasure to attend the conference of the "World Spirit Forum" in January. It's a particular honour to welcome here the president of the WSF, Sesto Castagnoli. To be in Arosa was a special and profound blessing. We addressed the most important problems of our time, with a deep ethical and spiritual commitment. All the faiths were represented but remarkably each was able to fully respect the faith of the other.
Going to the conference on "Ethics and the media" in Budapest in March was also a way to start a precious partnership with the Karolyi Foundation.
We extended many other partnerships. Just to mention three more. I was able to arrange for Marvin Kalb, of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, a meeting with Walesa for the group of Harvard and Chicago University alumni he was leading, visiting Gdansk in August 2004. I am working with the prestigious business group "The Caux Round Table", which will have a conference on business ethics in October 2005 in Warsaw and Cracow. I was happy to introduce them to the Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski, who decided to heavily sponsor the conference.
Our conference in Le Touquet, so remarkably set up by Bill Porter, ended up with an offer to have in Le Touquet every 2 years, starting in 2006, a big "World Media Forum", organised under the leadership of the ICF. The mayor of Le Touquet and MP, Leonce Deprez, promised that he will go around with me, trying to secure funds from the EU and the French ministry of culture. This is a huge and fascinating task ahead of us.
As far as the decentralisation of the ICF is concerned, the major achievement is due to the work of our American friends, Bob Webb and Alan Kania. ICF-America has been duly registered as a non-for-profit organisation, which is also opening the way to get funds from foundations. Bob will tell you more about it. Progress has also been made in Poland and Malgorzata Bonikowska will refer on that. In South Africa, Joao Rentao, the deputy editor of the Star in Jo'burg, and a brilliant black gentleman, expressed to me the willingness to work on building an ICF-South African chapter.
The ground work has been prepared a year ago by the Executive Committee for the building of such national or regional chapters. Some rules have been established, that each chapter should observe.
As you can see, we are working on so many fronts that it is a little bit overwhelming, especially when you are working on a shoe-string. It is essential therefore that, as soon as the goals have been established, each of us works independently in his/her own field of competence. I don't think it is needed to repeat here once again the tremendous job done by our Executive Director, Robin Williamson, and the other members of the Executive Committee and by our vice presidents and regional representatives as well. It is particularly important since you cannot expect too much from the president. I am getting on average 50 messages a day and, I confess, I read roughly 35 of those and answer up to 20, the more urgent and truly needing my attention. I cannot do more. Decentralisation is a must.
I end with the text of an Indian poet written 3000 years before Christ, and quoted by one of our friends from IofC-India, with whom we prepare in such a remarkable partnership and closeness our common conference in Panchgani next November.
We are the birds of the same nest
We may wear different feathers
We may speak different tongues
We may believe in different religions
We may belong to different cultures
Yet, we share the same home, Earth
Born on the same planet
Covered by the same skies
Gazing at the same stars
Breathing the same air
We must learn to live together
Or, miserably to perish together
For, a person can live individually
But can only survive collectively
(Atharva Veda)
This Indian wisdom is certainly very much up to date. It should incline us to show humility and respect and remind us how much we do have to learn from a civilisation, which was able to produce such profound verses 5000 years ago!
