On Saturday 21 November at the Ridotto of the Teatro del Popolo (5.00 pm), an award ceremony will be held to honour the founder and president of “Rondine. Cittadella della Pace”.
Is it possible to build an economy of peace? To creatively transform an ongoing conflict by exploring new avenues and opportunities that have so far been underestimated? The ceremony for the ‘Romanello Cantini. Fabbricanti di Arcobaleni’ Peace Prize (4th edition), scheduled for Saturday 21 November (5.00 pm) at the Ridotto del Teatro del Popolo, will seek to provide some answers to these questions and stimulate what promises to be an interesting and thought-provoking debate.
During the evening, the Prize will be awarded to Franco Vaccari, founder and president of ‘Rondine. Cittadella della Pace’, an organisation committed to the ‘creative transformation’ of armed conflicts around the world, through a methodology that aims to deconstruct the image of the enemy.
A psychologist and lecturer at the Pontifical Lateran University, Franco Vaccari has been involved in peace projects for almost forty years. A columnist and author of numerous publications, he has recently published a book entitled “Imprese di pace. Business Somersaults to Rethink the Economy of Relationships”, a cultural manifesto for an economy capable of building peace starting with businesses, which, as a mirror of the relationships between the people who work there, can be places of relational sustainability – veritable laboratories of peace.
The award ceremony will be introduced by Alessandro Spinelli (press officer for Castelfiorentino Town Council), followed by speeches from the Mayor, Francesca Giannì, the Councillor for Culture, Franco Spina, and Lapo Cantini (the “Romanello Cantini” Association). In the second part of the evening, journalist Andrea Fagioli will talk with Franco Vaccari about his latest book and his decades-long commitment to peace and dialogue between peoples. At the end, the award will be presented, followed by closing remarks by Daniela Casagli (President of the ‘Romanello Cantini’ Association). The Youth Town Council has also been invited to the ceremony.
“The culture of peace,” emphasises the Councillor for Culture, Franco Spina, “starts with individual stories, with the small things in each of us, with the ‘bridges’ we build across our differences, whilst fully respecting our own freedom and that of others. Talking about peace is a complex matter – perhaps too complex – and it is essential to start from the bottom up, from the particular to reach the universal, and to see peace not only as a destination but above all as a ‘handcrafted’ tool (to quote Pope Francis) for building bridges, with human responsibility, starting with small gestures of care and dialogue in everyday life. Beginning to ‘make rainbows’ can and must be our task in the world.”
