Season's Greetings

A new year's approaching, hopefully most of you are enjoying your winter holidays right now. István and Ferenc are still there, walking every day to get around the world.

Unfortunately due to the constant lack of resources we have less news about them. But still, more than we've been able to pass on here.

Since we, the background team of volunteers have lives as well, these lives turn more busy sometimes. We hope we'll be able to bring back more frequent posting next year. Until then, we wish you and the WorldWalk boys happy holidays.

Get Up, Stand Up: Be a Peace Activist

“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!” sings Bob Marley. There’s no explicit mention of peace in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but the declaration and observation of those rights have the objective of maintaining peace, our right for peace is substantial.

But it’s not enough to see and to say that, we have to take actions for peace. Together we can make a difference, please, help the WorldWalkers to spread their message, be a peace activist yourself, get involved.

The nicest example of the team’s philosophy on peace—which is based upon the inner peace of small communities; friendship and brotherhood—is the walking tour of István and Ferenc. Walking around the world is a great challenge, but despite the difficulties and problems they have to retain their individual peace. This is not only the key to the mission’s success but a proof of their philosophy: they’re friends, they’re brothers, they can live in peace. They’d like to share this message with as many people as possible. Ferenc and István cannot have a personal chat with everyone, but they do can share this message over the Internet. That’s why we’re askink for your help this time.

The background team created some virtual flyers and a virtual sticker. You can place these on forums, blogs, websites, email them to friends, relatives, share them on online social networks. In a few click you can be a peace activist.

Virtual flyer

There’s three virtual flyer models, each of them has a 400px x 400px size. Designed to be posted on forums or on your blog.

Click on image to see original size

This picture was shot in Morocco, in the June of 2008. When the WorldWalkers glimpsed the goats on the tree they couldn’t believe their eyes. A goat-tree? That’s impossible. But sometimes achieving peace looks impossible as well. Goats aren’t grown on trees, they just climb the branches. Peace isn’t something that grows by itself either, but we can reach it through the notions of brotherhood and friendship. There’s always a chance.

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[url=http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com][img]http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/GoatTreeFlyer.png[/img][/url]
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<a href="http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com"><img src="http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/GoatTreeFlyer.png"/></a>

Click on image to see original size

The Mauritanian desert was a really difficult stage to face. Ferenc and István did not fight the physical challenges only: the heat, the burning sun, the wind and the sand it blew into their faces; they had to fight their mental battles as well. The endless dunes of the Sahara and the narrow stripe of the paved road between those waves of sand often evoked feelings of tinyness, transience, helplessness. But they had to hold on, had to follow the trip, couldn’t give up. That’s the struggle we’re all part of; we’re lost shadows looking for peace.

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[url=http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com][img]http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/ShadowOnSandFlyer.png[/img][/url]
HTML:
<a href="http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com"><img src="http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/ShadowOnSandFlyer.png"/></a>

Click on image to see original size

This expressive photo was taken on the new year’s eve of 2008-2009. The brothers arrived to Málaga dog-tired, exhausted, full of disappointment, because they weren’t able to follow the tour from Dakar, Senegal, after completing the African stage, after crossing the Sahara desert, they had to turn back. the new year brought new hope, new prospects, the project had evolved a lot. Ferenc and István reaffirmed their determination, their handshake over the night lights of Málaga symbolizes this decision. There’s no better background to support the most important ideas and values of the WorldWalk-Peacetour project. This is the WorldWalk-Peacecloud.

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[url=http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com][img]http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/PeaceCloudFlyer.jpg[/img][/url]
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<a href="http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com"><img src="http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/PeaceCloudFlyer.jpg"/></a>

Virtual sticker

This virtual sticker is a space-efficient animated version of the WorldWalk-Peacecloud.

This Peacecloud sticker is a smaller, modified version of the Peacecloud flyer. We created this one to comply with the standard 125px x 125px rectangle ad size that’s becoming more and more common. This HTML code can be easily inserted into any blog or website sidebars. If you have a blog or a site that supports such ad placement, please place this sticker onto your ad-area, help us reach your readers with our message, with the WorldWalkers’ concept of peace.

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[url=http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com][img]http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/PeaceCloudSticker.gif[/img][/url]
HTML:
<a href="http://worldwalk-peacetour.blogspot.com"><img src="http://worldwalk-peacetour.info/PeaceCloudSticker.gif"/></a>

T-Shirts

Last but not least we have to mention that there are T-shirts available with these very same designs. They can be purchased in the WorldWalk Supporters shop. The purchase of a t-shirt sends the team US$5, so by buying one you can be a supporter besides being a peace activist.

Email This Post

You can see a small Email this icon at the bottom of our posts. If you click on that icon you can send the whole blogpost to your friends. One click, that’s all we ask for.

Peace, Friendship and Brotherhood: Building a Community

Peace is a term that most commonly refers to the absence of hostility..., says Wikipedia. That's right, but WorldWalk-Peacetour try to emphasize another view of this very complex, but very often used idea. We think peace is harmony. Harmony between people, between people and nature, harmony in the whole universe. In music, harmony is very flexible. A good song can contain many disharmonic parts, but it can be in harmony as a whole. If we imagine the world as a song, we will find many disharmonic connections, too. We are humans, that's our way of life. But since we are humans, so we can handle this. The goal of the WorldWalk-Peacetour project is to emphasize this skill. We think this is the key of peace.

But how we can handle disharmony in our lives? Our first and most proper tool is friendship. Friends are open for each other, they are patient, helpful, honest. They never hide their opinion, but tell it in a friendly way. Friendly: not offensive, but progressive. This way the problems can be solved, arguments can be closed with a compromise, the world becomes nicer and nicer. But we have to take care of friendship, like a plant, like a pet, like a lover. There are serious situations that can break friendship if it isn't strong enough. We—the WorldWalker brothers, and hopefully the background team and our community—will show, how to keep friendship alive in serous situations. And sure, there are many severe situations during a walking tour around the Earth. This is our message, this is what we can share with you.

There is another connection between people, a stronger relationship: brotherhood. The WorldWalker brothers are lucky, they are friends and brothers at the same time. But it doesn't depend on blood, DNA, etc. It relies on family. And why we can't be a huge family, a huge family of our mother Earth? We are brothers and sisters, don't forget it. The Sun, the Moon, the Nature are our brothers and sisters too. And it's not a newly found secret, it has been known for ages, just remember Francis of Assisi. All this is usually forgotten, there are many other important things that obscure this shining truth. Our mission is to warn you. Not just by repeating these boring phrases, but by showing our example.

Sounds interesting? Would you like to do something for it? Please, join our community. The lone examples are inefficient, our walking tour won't change anything if we can't find people who hear, understand and help us. Because the real key of peace is a strong, open minded community. With the introduction of WEB2.0 we've got a new chance to build communities. There are no borders, we can reach many-many people, we can spread our message and work together for a new, better, more peaceful world. This is the most important goal of WorldWalk-Peacetour. That's what we are walking for.

A Growing Community

WorldWalk-Peacetour have struggled to build a community around its mission. Although they never were alone, the size of the community never reached the “critical mass”, and the members were more like fans and friends than actively participating members. That's why we tried and try to open the boundaries of the WorldWalk community, this is a process we have put our hope in.

And though the process is slow it already looks promising. People are faving and commenting our images at flickr, some have joined our community pool as well.

Ferenc and István Ivanics have already made some friends at Facebook and MySpace. WorldWalk-Peacetour now have a profile at CouchSurfing, we expect to be able to find a way to help the boys getting a shelter during the coldest winter days in southern Spain. You can help them, too, by joining these communities or spreading the word about them. Feel free to post a comment here on your further ideas that might help.

And finally the WordWalk-Peacetour team is trying to contact organizations and other communities that are related to peace missions, traveling around the world, walking long distances. With their permission I will quote a kind letter from Derek and Carolyn from the PeaceWalker Society. Thank you all!

Greetings, Ferenc and István.

Congratulations on your world walk for Peace.

The Peacewalker Society is happy to accept you as honourary members. We have put a link to your site on our Resources/Who’s walking page.

To walk for Peace is an honour and a great privilege. We are confident you will continue to show by example and by your commitment that we are all one family on this very fragile planet. If the people lead, the leaders will follow.


May the road before you carry you to places you have never been,
And the steps you take move you in ways which nourish your soul.


Derek & Carolyn


Walker (derek)
"Not all who wander are lost" Tolkien


visit: www.peacewalker.com, www.lindaderek.com

email: derek@peacewalker.com
call: (604) 885-4855

Sponsors and Support

The WorldWalk-Peacetour project started as a low budget experiment but quickly turned into a no-budget enterprise. However this wasn't the intention of Ferenc and István, the walking brothers. The project gained some media attention in Hungary and Serbia, Ferenc and István visited television programs, featured articles in newspapers.

But actually, as the brothers started to walk, the attention of the mainstream media quickly faded and then disappeared. They managed to arrange a series of excluisve articles in a Serbian newspaper, a few sporadic articles in German and Hungarian newspapers and online media, but that's all.

WorldWalk-Peacetour, Ferenc and István Ivanics are planning to walk around the world in six years, spreading the word of peace in local communities.

(No) Sponsors

WorldWalk-Peacetour managed to survive the last one and a half years without major "activity" sponsorship. Without the help of companies dealing with trekking-equipments, energy or sport drinks, blister patches, sun protection creams, international bank accounts and debit cards, etc.

They have walked some 5200 miles (8300 km) so far, from Palić, Serbia to Dakar, Senegal. They plan to continue their walk in North America.

More Difficulties

With an expired bank card and a constantly moving "target" it became more and more difficult to deliver the support to Ferenc and István. In Africa, as a temporary measure, we used Western Union, a clumsy and expensive way to get the money to the brothers, though it was effective enough.

Of course, the team were guilty, guilty by thinking that as the miles-count increased the sponsors would show up. Well, they didn't. The support came from the municipality of Budapest, from the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, from the Hungarian Embassy in Morocco and from (not so) many individuals along the way and in Hungary, Serbia, Germany. And of course there were those restaurants that gave the boys a hot meal, a place to spend a few hours without worries about the next day. The Hungarian speaking community wasn't growing fast enough to sustain the project and without a proper international community-space, the worldwide community did not even exist.

The WorldWalkers have plans to visit three more continents, North and South America, Australia and Asia, before returning to Europe again.

What Are Our Goals?

We'd like to build an international community, to make the WorldWalkers well known around the world. What they have achieved so far is quite something, what they plan to achieve is almost unequaled.

The boys don't want to give up, they will fight for it, working hard to raise funds to follow their Peacetour. But they're exhausted of the often inhuman conditions, they need something to raise their spirits. If you can help, please, contact us. If you can give them publicity, do it, link to their site, to this blog, post about them in forums or on your blog.

If you work in any of the areas mentioned before (or in an airline with transatlantic, transpacific flights) and can help them, please do so. If you live near Málaga, Spain, and you think you can give them shelter, food, work, please contact us. Soon we'll try to allow small donations to be made through PayPal, too. So, if you can think of a way to help István and Ferenc, don't hesitate.