ICEA expresses its sympathy to all those affected by the blasts in London

Cleveland, Ohio - 14 July 2005 (ICEAnews) The terrorist attacks which took place in Central London have sent waves of the most profound shock around the world. American Cultural Ambassadors David and Renate Jakupca of the International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA) expresses its deepest sympathy to all those whose lives have been touched, directly or indirectly, by the explosions.

It is too early to evaluate the full extent of the blasts at this stage. The number of lives lost, families affected and the impact on the environmental infrastructure has yet to be determined. ICEA's Directors and Founders, David & Renate Jakupca express, "We are all bound in solidarity with the victims and families of the madness in London today." The environmental arts movement is always bound up in terrorist horror because of the size and scope of the sector.

ICEA will closely monitor developments and keep contact with our British affiliates to assess the situation. There is one evident conclusion from the perspective of our sector and one less so.

The evident one - the Environmental Arts must continue to strengthen its support for a Culture of Peace: must insist on parallel, linked measures to upgrade facilitation and above all, must help poor countries with the technology, capacity building and financing to keep the standards high.

And this latter point leads to the second less evident conclusion – while we will support any G8 action to intensify the war on terror; they must not be distracted from the strategic goals of the war on poverty and more support for Africa. The strongest message the G8 can send to the world is to strengthen their resolve to eliminate debt completely: Arts and Culture can be a leading edge export promotion vehicle and a tool for local level community development, sustainable growth and jobs. One of the best long-term blows to terrorists is to close their recruiting grounds amongst those languishing in hopelessness in the world's poorest countries.

The very fact that one of the world’s major cities has been targeted at a time when world leaders have come together in that same country to explore solutions to global poverty and climate change, shows that this act was designed to create maximum impact on a global scale.

David Jakupca, “Now, more than ever, people should keep their plans to travel and take the opportunity to visit family, friends and new places all over the world in order to meet others, thus creating an international community of understanding and culture of Peace. Not doing this would be to play into the hands of the terrorists".

David and Renate Jakupca
Directors
ICEA

About ICEA:
ICEA - The International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA) is a force for socially responsible activity. ICEA's mission is to "Assist in understanding of the relationship between Humans and their Environment through the Arts". The International Center for Environmental Arts (ICEA) was founded by David and Renate Jakupca in 1987 to meet the compelling needs of ordinary citizens for access to current, balanced, understandable information about complex global issues. Over the years, ICEA has gained a reputation for excellence based upon a unique library of specialized, current information on global importance and a wide range of imaginative programming and collaborations with other organizations to meet the needs of a broad constituency. With affiliates across the globe, the ICEA supports the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and Code of Ethics and a range of programs that underpin them. It supports research, information sharing and effective action promoting a culture of Peace.

More information:
www.TheICEA.Org
www.danaiujoki.com
www.universalalliance.org.uk/