I think that the theme that we have for the conference is particularly relevant this year 'awakening planetary consciousness' and we are also adopting this theme as a primary element of our Breakthrough 2007 - 2012 Initiative. Even though those people that are probably not aware that we have an awakening planetary consciousness as part of the shift, they are too part of it whether they realize it or not, and I think it occurs at the United Nations because a lot of people are disappointed with what happens at the United Nations and we can usually say that it is not a very effective organization not sufficient to solve our global problems but on the other hand, the exchanges that take place there among all different types of people, governments, representatives, as well as business people, civil societies activists, indigenous people, youth, women, farmers, scientists, academicians, all coming together around particular fields of endeavour, and sharing their knowledge and insights, and it is part of this planetary consciousness awareness evolution that is taking place.

The work group for global democracy is about this planetary evolution and this awareness. We have several primary projects we are engaged with, one of them is obviously this conference and its linkage with the chief justices conference and that awareness amongst our political establishment, our judicial establishment, for the need for more than rule of international law and the role that our systems of global governance play in that but there is a linkage with civil society with that which I think is very important for the consciousness raising. So, I think it is particularly important that we have these two conferences that coincide and they overlap and that we have the exposure to each other so encourage you throughout the time that you are here to get to know the chief justices. Also, City Montessori School is an incredible institution host to many students who will also be here, so please take the opportunity to interact with the students as well.

Second project that we have with the World Movement for Global Democracy is this Breakthrough 2007 - 2012 initiative and there are two primary positives to this. The first part that we are launching now is a petition sign on campaign saying there is a common sense of the world we want to live in, what are dreams are of environmental sustainability, of love for humanity, of spiritual awakening and respect, of peace and justice, and this is a vision that most people on the planet share and it is not fully apparent to the political institutions to the extent that we really want this in our lives and people of the world are asking and saying it's time for us to create this. So by having this campaign, asking people to sign on to support this, altogether each one of us can see what our role is helping make the shift to this new reality and at the same time call upon our elected officials similarly to support and work for the same vision and dream of what life can be on earth. We are coming to a point in life where more and more believe that we have a choice 'will it be utopia or oblivion?' And most of us here will choose utopia and why not? You know the riches on this planet and the beauty that unfolds around us each day so why can't it be utopia for all of us on the planet?

So the other primary project that we have is the Peoples' Global Action Campaign and the intention here then is to support this breakthrough initiative by gathering together all of the proposals and initiatives that people have and that they want to share with our global community. And to find other people that share similar interests and similar beliefs and want to also contribute. So its bringing two like-minded people together to work cooperatively together to make the shift that we need to happen. So on our website we will be developing over the upcoming months this listings that we have been gathering from the last several symposiums, proposals and ideas that people have and they will also be listed there and there will be a framework and we will be gathering views throughout the weekend. As you go the different workshops, or as you present your presentations at the workshops, it is important for you to think about how you would like to take everything that you are sharing and boil it down to half page or so, so that you could present it to the global community as a project, a proposal, an initiative that anyone that's interested can find out that project and can join you and support you and actually help in manifesting it in the real world. So this is like a connection of the spokes of a wheel that we see and I think that this conference is special in an unusual way - we have a focus on global democracy which is a shifting of institutions of governance but yet we find a lot of interest from the grass roots organizations, from academics, from the spiritual community, from personal growth movements, and that mixture is a very rich mixture of people that would opt to make the shift throughout our society.

The idea again, you know, the UN does have this mixture of vary many different types of voices, but the political aspect with the spiritual and the innovative, cultural creative types of people that come together here is helping to engender a new idea of what global governance can be and I think the world will look very different from our national system of governance that we have today. So we are part of that in-cultural evolution of our political processes so that they more fully represent the reality of what we need to live on the planet. As one human family of 6.2 billion people and growing. Human rights - how may people have read that declaration. I would encourage anyone who has not read it to read it can find it on the UN website or you could just do a google search.