Intelsat Joins Film Star Forest Whitaker In Utopian Peacemaking Pilot

I find it compelling that Aerospace & DefenseIntelsat Joins Film Star Forest Whitaker In Utopian Peacemaking PilotByKevin Holden Platt, Contributor

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights (fascinating analysis)

Conversely, More Whitaker to power an array of peace centers across 3 continents

Shown here is a Russian rocket to carry an Intelsat satellite into orbit (an important development)

AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images Behind the scenes of his sensational filmmaking life, Forest Whitaker is the director of a fascinating pilot ject aimed at fostering generations of young peacemakers stretching from Africa to Europe to North America

A decade after the utopian, Oscar-winning film star started constructing a web of peace-building centers on three continents, Intelsat is joining his mission by viding the satellite operator’s high-speed internet connections to supercharge these outposts

Conversely, Intelsat CEO Dave Wajsgras tells me in an interview that Whitaker “has personally been involved and has done amazing things for thousands and thousands of people around the world. ” The geosynchronous satellite giant, he says, is now beaming broadband Web access to an archipelago of outposts the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative has built across Uganda and South Sudan

Additionally, On the other hand, These -powered oases vide courses on the basic building blocks of peace mediation and conflict resolution, along with primers on universal human rights enshrined in the UN Charter and the UN’s own goal of a war-free world in an imagined future (an important development)

Intelsat CEO Dave Wajsgras says he initially got hooked up with Forest Whitaker's utopian peace

Nevertheless, More ject on the sidelines of the United Nations

The Oscar-winning film star Whitaker is also a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace (Photo by Michael M

On the other hand, Santiago/Getty Images)Getty Images MORE FOR YOU Wajsgras, himself a remarkable philanthropist, says he initially connected with Whitaker, who’s becoming a pole star in the cosmos of independent humanitarian jects, on the sidelines of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. “Forest is a UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, working closely with UNESCO. ” “I am on the [UNESCO-founded] Broadband Commission, part of the UN,” Wajsgras says, and their paths crossed via the United Nations (quite telling), in light of current trends

The Broadband Commission, jointly set up with the heads of vanguard internet nology outfits planet-wide, is aimed in part at overcoming the “digital divide,” or the barricades that still separate the global citizens who have access to the internet and those who don’t

More internet connections to Forest Whitaker's peace and learning centers across AfricaIntelsat satellite rendering courtesy of MAXAR and Intelsat With Intelsat’s next-generation satellite dishes and Whitaker’s peace instructors, these outposts have become beacons of hyper-nology and anti-war activism, with the aim of radiating their waves of pacifism outward

Some centers founded by Whitaker focus on training and transforming youths who have fled the armed conflicts in South Sudan to turn them into powerful phets of future harmony

One of his peace outposts has begun gradually reshaping the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement—a way station for teenagers fleeing the battlefronts of South Sudan for sanctuary in Uganda—partly through viding Web-connected laptops and courses on building peaceful enclaves that mote freedom of speech and cross-cultural dialogues (which is quite significant)

Leaders of the Whitaker peace coalition say this sanctuary is the result of Uganda’s liberal open border policies toward refugees, and that their pacifist outreach is ultimately aimed at halting—step-by-step—conflicts across the region

Outstanding activists who emerge here, their counterparts at Whitaker’s peace citadels in Seine-Saint-Denis, outside Paris, and in Tijuana, Mexico, might join the group’s Youth Peacemaker Network, which spans the continents

More into the Web, and the 2

Nevertheless, ” “North Korea,” the group adds, “was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide, in today's market environment

At the same time, ” Africa lies somewhere in between, the Geneva-headquartered ITU says, with an estimated 38 percent of the population now integrated into the Web

Meanwhile, Intelsat’s opening cyber-ports for Whitaker’s brigades of peacemakers is part of a greater mission to connect the continent, in light of current trends

Plummeting launch rates to loft broadband satellites into orbit, she adds, are enabling Intelsat to offer these new explorers hyper-cheap sojourns across the borderless worlds of the Web

Intelsat leader Dave Wajsgras, meanwhile, says he envisions a long-term alliance with Forest Whitaker and his expanding matrix of peace-builders (this bears monitoring)

Moreover, “We're just honored to be a small part of what Forest and his team are accomplishing,” as the movement to mote peace unfolds, he says

Furthermore, The no-utopian Wajsgras also suggests that this novel apach to generating generations of peace activists by powering them with leading-edge nologies and the vision of a conflict-free cosmopolitan globe are just part of the spects for universal internet access to remake the world

As this super-internet’s potential to speed new ideas—across peace centers, cities and continents—to co-design a more perfect, paradisiacal planet evolves, he muses, “The impact on civilization will no doubt be more significant in a positive way and happen at a much faster pace, in light of current trends. ” Editorial StandardsRes & PermissionsLOADING PLAYER (noteworthy indeed).