Ban Ki-moon, you have been proclaimed an ‘Aristocrat of the Earth’ and you are wanted! Indeed, you are in great demand. In the United Nations it was just too difficult to reach you. Any UN Director General’s work schedule and the protective filters surrounding such an office each one with its own agenda, makes this understandable. Now as resident in an elected chair of the International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission, I am hopeful that it will be easier.

But first a little background information, which I have reason to believe you are well aware off. In 2010, the World Philosophical Forum was established in Athens by the Russian Philosopher Igor Kondrashin. The World Philosophical Forum (WPF) is built on Greek traditions of the Olympic Games and the Dialectical Symposia. The WPF is an independent international (supranational), non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in Greece with branches spread around the globe in more than 50 countries. One is in Malaysia headed by Dr. Halo-N holding the rank of WPF Secretary-General.

Athens now is in the process of preparing its 9th WPF Dialectical Symposium in the tradition of ancient Greece and will be conducted this time in the Museum of the University of Athens. Later in the year, on November 15, WPF Athens representatives will participate in the celebration of World Philosophy Day, 2018 in Kuala Lumpur hosted by WPF Malaysian National Branch, fostering in this way the principle of Global citizenship.

In 2011, the WPF was given a boost and warmly greeted by Irina Bokova, then Director-General of UNESCO. Irina Bokova reinforced UN-UNESCO’s Global Civil Education Initiative to help shape a global agenda. It aimed to foster inclusivity and quality through life long civil learning within a spirit of global citizenship. Indeed, you are both needed, now more than ever before.

Ban Ki-moon, when you were in Athens last to examine the plight of migrants in their search for a safe port, you have received the symbolic life jacket. The symbolism is more pertinent than ever. It represents an SOS as pollution overwhelms the planet, the poles melt, fires sweep through forests and flooding erodes the fertile Earth.

At that time, I made failed attempts to gain your attention on behalf of the WPF in the hope that you would address either its 7th or 8th WPF Dialectical Symposia (DS) in Athens. Little did I know then that another region Malaysia would seek your participation and that I would be called upon to try and establish contact with you?

Having learned my lesson earlier in my flawed attempt to gain your attention I have now resorted to offloading a batch of sealed bottles into the seas around Malaysia. If they meet favourable winds, driven by ocean currents, continue to bob up and down and ride the waves well, one miraculously may reach you. Its contained message will inform you of the growing portfolio of the Malaysian branch of the WPF. One of my bottles by now may have escaped into the Indian Ocean another into the South China Sea? Each bottle carries the same message to you: please, come to Kuala Lumpur. Relevant information is given including contact details for your rendez vous in November 2018.

As the dismal thought crossed my mind that the probability of even one bottle arriving at its intended destination is close to zero, I decided to cast my net even wider by writing this short piece, as a failsafe. It may be a sign of despair and desperation. It is also a sign that I am not yet gripped by social dementia as much as our world is. Although the world has great universities, brilliant scholars and researchers, great orchestras, libraries, museums, unfortunately, the main source of information for most people, locally, regionally and internationally comes through television and the WPF would like to help change this.

The 9th DS, will be organized by the Hellenic branch of WPF and will take place as usual in Athens in the first week of October, 2018. It will discuss bio-philosophy and examine the state of what it perceives as a widespread social dementia. The following month, representatives from Athens as European global citizens will join forces with Asian global citizens (Malaysian and other Pacific region countries) in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate World Philosophy Day, 2018, proclaimed by UNESCO. It will include the significant participation of World Philosophical Forum Heads, representatives of the International Gusi Peace Prize and other prominent personages and with hopefully surprise appearances. On behalf of the WPF, I convey its eagerness that you, Ban Ki-moon, and you, Irina Bokova, will join them in this event, important for the whole of Humanity. As you know, Philosophy Day at UNESCO has been celebrated since 2002. In 2004, the Minister of Culture of Morocco, Mohamed Achaari, proposed the establishment of World Philosophy Day, which at that time was organized by the Association of the Friends of Philosophy in Fez, Morocco.

As UN Secretary-General, you were responsible for several major reforms on peacekeeping and UN employment practices. Diplomatically, you took strong views on global warming, pressing the issue at the highest level, and on the Darfur conflict, helping to persuade Sudan to allow peacekeeping troops to enter. Your thoughts on education, especially on the issue of civic education, that every child must have equal access to quality learning that enables them to assume a role helpful to their development within a tolerant and peaceful society are just as important. You considered education as more about global citizenship than about the three R’s; reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic, which with equal opportunity come naturally. We must shear up the civil learning process when and where it is falling apart and promote solidarity, respect and responsibility for a better shaping of the future.

Now you can see the reason for my offloaded bottles bobbing up and down in the vast ocean and this short article. Kuala Lumpur awaits all.

Ambassador Barry S. Gusi, Chairman of the International Gusi Peace Prize Foundation urges your presence in Malaysia at this year’s celebration of World Philosophy Day, a UN initiated event as well as your support of the World Philosophical Forum and its Malaysian branch. Your presence will not only add prestige to a unique event of worldwide importance it will also add a distinctive note to a EuroAsian bridge with Athens, representing West, and Kuala Lumpur, representing East.

Ban Ki-moon, when you left the UN, the Doomsday Clock according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists stood close to three minutes before midnight. Since then the symbolic Time was cut to a frightening two minutes. So, let us unite together to make this international and supranational event in Kuala Lumpur laudable in both East and West and globally successful by doing everything we can to stay the Clock of destruction, and turn it back. This will be a tremendous gift of our, present generations to all generations stretching beyond into the future. Let us give them a better chance, the opportunity to live on this planet, on this globe, after us. All this will help weave the fabric of a greater CIVIL society and encourage the presence of Earth CIVILisation in every region, on all continents. Our aim is to move our world away from doom, towards a brighter future, in which philosophy and its classical ideas are not only celebrated annually, but also used by everyone daily and everywhere on the Earth.