Dear friends,
The world has changed dramatically. The new coronavirus disease has stopped us in the implementation of our everyday tasks and challenged us at our primary aim: providing the healthcare and wellbeing of our citizens. Suddenly, the values have been revalued, and objectives have been rescheduled. The challenge was unprecedented for all generations of peoples around the globe for the first time in our lives. Potentially, this is just the beginning of dramatic changes in our society.
The International Association of Peace Messenger Cities is an organization which is comprised of the cities and their leadership and population. For the first time in history, the internationality of the pandemic has forced our governments to close borders, in many countries even city borders, which forced the Mayors and City Councils to deal with the pandemic creatively and locally. We were forced to organize and secure the means of protection and care for our citizens. All the cities were involved in similar problems and activities in efforts of stopping the spread of Covid-19.
Internationally, countries were challenged to do the same. Borders were closed. Travelling was cancelled. The world came to a stop. The social and health issues were a prelude to the economic crisis, which is emerging in terms of loss of work and social security for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
In the environmental sense, for the first time, the Planet has purged itself by creating a virus, which forced us to shut down our biggest polluters: means of transportation, factories and plants, oil fields and refineries. We, the International Association of Peace Messenger cities salute the clean air and appeal to the governments to consider the environmental impact we create every day as the difference is noticeable.
We, as the organization, would like to express our solidarity to every city on Earth. When doing our best to protect our inhabitants we were all forced into the same situation, regardless of national borders, which once again proves the importance and value of city governments and management.
We wish you all the best. Furthermore: let humanity, solidarity, dignity and decency prevail in these difficult times. And we congratulate every city government on implementing the measures to protect our values, our people, and our existence.
Tilen Klugler,
Secretary-General of the IAPMC,
Mayor of Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.