This quote graced the campus of the Universidad del Mar in Reñaca, north of Valparaíso. It can summarize, almost by itself, the way crossed by the participants of the encounter organized by the Sustainable Earth network in Chile, at the begining of december, but also the spirit that inspired our reflection.

It set sail in Saluzzo, near the source of the Po, in northern Italy, in March 2008, to berth in borders of the Pacific, Viña del Mar, in December. The idea of a "Sustainable Earth University" had to be object of concrete proposals of organization. The three main elements of this construction were, in effect: the increasingly important needs of training of the grassroots organizations in agriculture and fishing, in rural and outlying areas, indigenous populations, and so on, in all continents, the sharing of experiences as a privileged way of learning and research to the challenges of sustainable development, the necessary linkage between informal or nonformal education and the formal education, between the popular world and academia.

After three fiedl visits at the same time very instructive and warm, a real "road map" was drawn to the beat of working meetings at the Universidad del Mar. The agreement became, essentially, on the one hand, on the need to maintain the efforts of self organization, while the further deepening of the concept of "social leader" and moreover, on the resources and opportunities offered by new communication technologies, while responding to the demands of systematization and evaluation. The idea of "virtual" prevailed along with a "platform" - one that we constituted in fact - to consolidate the establishment of a operational team that the UDM proposed to harbour.

Can be considered that the clear commitment of the university, and particularly the UDM, agreed to take as an inevitable reflection of their social responsibility to meet the challenges of the XXI century. And all the events, initiatives and other projects must be used to progress in this way.

Two positive ascertainments can be made and constitute two axes of work. In the first place, a true convergence between the two main approaches: on the bottom, taking into account the needs of disadvantaged groups and populations in terms of popular education and training of leaders, on the top, the awareness of this statement, by the guests and represented universities, and their responsibility towards society. Convergence on the core then, the first and irreplaceable mission of all educational approach: to train the human being, to train the citizens. And at the risk that lies in the personal or hegemonic choices: trust in democracy, always under construction, to avoid the worst. The other reason for satisfaction is the excellent atmosphere in which the work was conducted, the different experiences presented inspired interest and respect. “Empathy” was palpable and it is necessary one more step to ensure that the development of each of these experiences, that the construction of each of these "territories", will promote a network, a mesh dimension whose objective can only be to make this mosaic of small peaces a net of coexistence, without borders.

Faced to the global crisis that we live and that “Sustainable Earth network” anticipated , this meeting established, with a new glance, an almost unexpected answer: the application of a partnership approach to mobilize better, to the service of education and training of citizens, the intelligence and imagination of man.

Richard Petris Ecole de la Paix

See the video made about the meeting and all the set Global Café