This Wednesday, the world filled the Plaza de Bolivar. For the first time, Colombia and Latin America are hosts of the event that, after the Olympic Games in Rio, is the most relevant in the region. More than 1,300 young people from 196 countries attended the opening of the One Young World (OYW) 2017 Summit that will run until Saturday.
One Young World, is the summit of young people and business leaders to share experiences of social transformation, entrepreneurship and the greatest leadership in the world. All this from a critical perspective facing the challenges that the world faces in matters of peace, environment, poverty, corruption and economic development.
The opening ceremony was the moment to highlight the Colombian idiosyncrasy before the world. Among the presentations were the singers Adriana Lucia and Sara Bermúdez who sang the Colombian anthem and that of Bogotá. A game of lights that gave life to the cosmogony of the Kuna indigenous people caught the attention of the attendees. The songs of the choir of children of the National Batuta Foundation and the closing of Fonseca also stood out.
The participation of world leaders such as the former secretary of the United Nations Koffi Annan; the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus; Tawakkol Karman, Peace Nobel and co-founder of Women Journalist Without Chains, and musician Bob Geldof was used to make Bogotá and Colombia the ideal scenarios to talk about peace.
” We should be impressed by the example of Colombia . The world is full of conflicts, states and societies are being tested, today’s problems are global but need local solutions, “said former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
For his part, Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakol Karman gave an emotional speech in which he called on young people to lead change, “my message: no longer be a tool of tyranny, no longer a tool of war, trust in which you can. “
But perhaps the most emblematic moment and that enjoyed the applause of the audience was the intervention of the musician Bob Geldof: ” I am sick because of what has happened to the world in these months , since the last time we met, I am sick for Trump, How dare they insult people who have done so much for Human Rights? I think the flags are a tribe that do not let us see the now. We are in a world that has lost confidence in institutions. You must look for new ideas to lead the world. ”
The closing was in charge of the President Juan Manuel Santo who, in addition, took the voice as Nobel Peace Prize winner to talk about the importance in reaching this principle that “it is the right one, although in many occasions it is unpopular”.
There is no doubt that Bogotá and Colombia were chosen as the scenario due to the global relevance that the peace accords with the FARC have given them. However, the nomination of the Colombian capital as the headquarters of OYW was led by the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá and the District Government since 2014.
According to David Gereda, OYW Latin American director, ” the world has been observing carefully the process we are experiencing. after conjuring an armed conflict of more than five decades and that helps us to open a new opportunity for reconciliation and reunion as a society “.
