100: nations truly united?

Reasons to be Hopeful is one hundred days old today. So that means we've found and shared one hundred positive stories - plus the other little bits and pieces you find here! I guess that's good news in itself. I have certainly been heartened so far by the fact that, most days at least, finding hopeful stories to post doesn't take an age - and that there are plenty of different newspapers and broadcast websites worth searching. Your support has also been amazing. Thank you for reading! I hope you keep coming back...

(By the way, as of today, I'm changing the RTBH post title format slightly - anything above 'Day One Hundred' is going to get pretty cumbersome, so a simple number will have to do!)

So, to today's story. Well, it's an opinion piece really, from Gulf News. It discusses the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the new Forum for which had its inaugural meeting this week. The UNAOC was the brainchild of Spanish PM Zapatero, who proposed it shortly after the Madrid train bombings in 2004, and it was established in 2005 by the governments of Spain and Turkey. The Alliance is designed to proactively facilitate cross-cultural understanding, tolerance and co-operation - particularly between those of different faiths. It announced several new initiatives with that objective this week. As the Gulf News columnist implies, such efforts seem to fit the UN's role and mandate better than many others in which it has become embroiled - and personally I feel that any serious effort to reduce polarization, tension and extremism across the world should be welcomed. You can find out more by browsing the UNAOC website. Enjoy!