Thousands of children bring the colours of peace to Piazza Duomo

Piazza Duomo celebrated the departure of the World March with the great ‘Imagine’ karaoke. Today, it was relaunched here with a splendid parade by thousands of children and young people who, together with their teachers, marched from Piazza Cairoli accompanied by music, balloons, banners and coloured flags, many of them made by the children themselves.

At the head of this happy, gaudy parade was the international delegation of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence who, having departed from Wellington, are circling the world demanding global nuclear disarmament, the progressive and proportional dismantling of conventional weapons, the withdrawal of troops from the occupied territories and the rejection of wars and violence.

Awaiting the Milanese march on the stage in Piazza Duomo were Alessandro Cattelan of Radio 105, who presented the event,and the Inter defender, Ivan Ramiro Cordoba, the celebrity footballer - much loved by the children - who is promoting the march. While the giant screen displayed the pictures of the crowded piazza and projected the proposals for which the march is acting as ambassador, the children formed the word “walk” and then a representation of the by now famous slogan of the march, “Walk the Future.”

In the meantime, at the Conference Hall of Milan Province, which together with the Milan Provincial Schools Office sponsored the initiative, a prize-giving ceremony was held for the Milanese primary and secondary school competition “We love the word PEACE,” launched by the humanist associations, the Community for Human Development and World Without Wars.

At the prize-giving, conducted by Diego and Pina from Radio Deejay, Professor Ignazio Gadaleta, Vice Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Brera, who was also present as representative of the commission of judges, commented: “The most beautiful work was the one created this morning by all of you together.”

Organised by the humanist association, World Without Wars, the march will remain in Italy until November 12, before resuming its progress through the continents of Africa and America until it reaches its final destination, Punta de Vacas, on January 2, 2010.