Celebrating Peace and Love at the 2011 Gusi Peace Prize Ceremony

Celebrating Peace and Love at the 2011
Gusi Peace Prize Ceremony

By Manila News Group (Originally in English)

[Manila] At the 10th annual Gusi Peace Prize Award Night held in Manila, the Philippines in November Golden Year 8 (2011), the year’s laureates and other distinguished guests gathered to celebrate the pursuit of peace and respect for human life. A charitable organization that recognizes individuals and groups around the world for their selfless service to humanity, the Gusi Peace Prize Foundation honored 20 recipients for putting into practice founder Barry Gusi’s inspiring motto: “We live for peace because of love.”

In their acceptance speeches, many of the laureates shared their thoughts and experiences on how humankind can achieve lasting harmony. For example, Mr. Shri Mayankote Kelath Narayanan, Governor of West Bengal, India, said, “Without peace you can’t prosper. Hindu philosophy talks of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, that ‘the world is one family.’ The message is that this is one world, one planet. We need to hand over this to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in a manner that their lives will be as nice, or even better than ours.”

2006 Gusi Peace Prize laureate Supreme Master Ching Hai was invited to the ceremony but was unable to attend due to Her busy schedule. However, She supported the event by sponsoring its two banquets, where vegan fare was served to over 1,200 local and international guests at a five-star, VIP welcome dinner at the InterContinental Manila Hotel on November 23, and at a buffet following the award ceremony. In addition, over a thousand boxes of delicious, vegan take-away food were prepared for other guests and the working staff. These loving gifts, conveying the message, “Peace begins on our plate” were in line with the event’s theme. The welcome dinner began with a video of the Supreme Master discussing why peace can never be achieved as long as humans follow the meat diet. “A completely peaceful world must be a vegan world where all beings live in peace and not fear one another,” she said. Amazed that plant-based foods could be so delicious and satisfying, more than 600 event participants from different walks of life and countries expressed great interest in veganism and requested help in holding seminars for their groups or people. The guests were also pleasantly surprised by the gift bags they received from Supreme Master Ching Hai, which contained some of Her insightful books and informative materials on the vegan diet and other solutions to climate change.

On the evening of November 24, the Gusi Peace Prizes were presented before an audience of 3,000 guests at the prestigious Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). The award ceremony was enlivened by cultural performances and a fantastic vegan reception served by the Convention Center caterer, Via Mare. With the assistance from our Association members, Via Mare successfully catered its first vegan affair. Their owner, managers and the chefs expressed great surprise at the quality, range and tastiness of the foods prepared and requested assistance from our Association to create vegan options for the regular menus at their catering outlets. The guests were also delighted to experience such fine vegan cuisine, partaking in a wide selection of cocktails and a buffet of over 20 dishes, while watching Supreme Master Television programs on the healthy vegan lifestyle and sharing their thoughts and feelings on world peace.

The Via Mare’s manager, Ms. Diane Rosales, tearfully described a wonderful dream she had had two nights earlier, during which Supreme Master Ching Hai eased her concerns about catering for the large number of VIP guests at the event by helping her with organization and food service.

Our deepest thanks go to Ambassador Barry Gusi and his wife, Dr. Evelyn Gusi, who have stayed true to the pursuit of peace by honoring the world’s peacemakers, and expanded the concept so as to encompass love for all living beings. Our thanks also go to Supreme Master Ching Hai and the dedicated catering teams for supporting this wonderful event so as to make the dream of a vegan world come true.