Title:
Giving Awards to People Who Make Peace by Seeking
Common Ground
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
For years, Search for Common Ground has honored
people who work to settle conflicts. Singers Peter
Yarrow and Humayun Khan performed at the group's
2010 awards ceremony. John Marks heads Search for
Common Ground.
JOHN MARKS: "We think the world should solve its
problems peacefully in ways that enhance all the
sides involved in conflict and these are people who
are real great successes."
Rugby in South Africa was long considered a white
man's game. But Nelson Mandela used the nation's
rugby team to unite the country. Joel Stransky had
the winning goal in the 1995 World Cup.
JOEL STRANSKY: "The biggest lesson for me is that
sport is a wonderful conduit to upliftment, to
helping different societies in need, and not only
raising money but helping everyone reach a common
goal."
Jordan's former Queen Nur al-Hussein honored the
film producers of Just Vision. They financed "Budrus,"
a film about Israelis and Palestinians who work
together to prevent Israel from dividing a
Palestinian village.
NUR AL-HUSSEIN: "Thank you, Just Vision, for shining
so courageously, harnessing that transformative and
healing power by shining a light on the people and
communities of our region who are committed to
building a more just, compassionate and peaceful
future together."
Ronit Avni created Just Vision.
RONIT AVNI: "Over the years, we have learned how
important it is for ordinary people to participate
in the process of conflict resolution."
The Common Ground Awards also recognized efforts to
improve relations among the descendents of former
President Thomas Jefferson. He had children with his
wife, who was white, and with a black slave. Shay
Banks-Young is one of the descendents.
SHAY BANKS-YOUNG: "If you would just sit down and
listen to the other person, talk, share what you
feel, get past the ugliness so you can get on to the
grace of who we are."
The Awards also honored the Interfaith Youth Corps.
Eboo Patel began the effort to develop leaders who
seek cooperation among people of different faiths.
EBOO PATEL: "We have to make sure that faith is a
bridge of cooperation and not a barrier of
division." These peacemakers used different tools as
a way to settle conflicts.
"I am Jewish, I am Christian, I am Muslim, I am
Buddhist..."
Singing for open-mindedness seemed to be a good way
to look for common ground. I'm Jim Tedder.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
