Peter Gabriel-Humanitarian

Peter Gabriel, Humanitarian- Twenty Years ago today the Human Rights Now!Tour played its first gig with Peter Gabriel leading the charge along with Bruce Springsteen and Sting. So it's quite fitting today that Art for Amnesty announced that Peter Gabriel is the recipient of the Amnesty International ‘Ambassador of Conscience Award’ 2008. The presentation to Peter Gabriel will take place during a ceremony at the Hard Rock Cafe in London, on September 10th, 2008.

Peter Gabriel is a long time campaigner for human rights around the world, having first worked with Amnesty during the Conspiracy of Hope Tour in 1986 and then on the ground breaking Human Rights Now! Tour in 1988. Gabriel went on to found Witness, a video community campaigning for Human Rights and more recently The Elders a private alliance of senior global figures to launch diplomatic assaults on the globe's most intractable problems.

"Peter has been at the vanguard of the struggle for human rights and justice around the world for nearly a quarter of a century" said Bill Shipsey of Art for Amnesty, “all of his wonderful work, not just with Amnesty, could justify his selection as an 'Ambassador of Conscience”.

The Ambassador of Conscience Award, now in its sixth year, recognizes exceptional individual leadership and witness in the fight to protect and promote human rights. The award, inspired by a poem written for Amnesty International by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, aims to promote the work of Amnesty International by association with the life, work and example of its 'Ambassadors' who have done so much to inspire and uplift. Former recipients include: Nelson Mandela, U2, Mary Robinson and Vaclav Havel.

The Ambassador of Conscience Award will be presented to Peter Gabriel by The Edge (guitarist with U2). A previous recipient of the award, The Edge (along with band mate Bono) has been credited by Peter Gabriel with recruiting him to Amnesty International.

The event will also mark the launch of Amnesty International's global Small Places Tour 2008 the organization’s most ambitious global music and human rights project since the Human Rights Now!
Tour in 1988. Details of the tour and the artists participating will be announced following the award presentation to Peter Gabriel.


Green Vote- Thomas Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times makes the case that voters, especially first time college students, have only one choice in this election. He basically points out that at this juncture and with all the science you would think both candidates would embrace the green movement and issues. As it turns out this is disappointingly not the reality of the upcoming election. In my mind, this is the issue of our time and I ask all of you to seriously examine the candidate’s positions on clean technologies and innovations.