Public Lectures: NEWS
Tony Blair gave a public lecture “Faith and Globalization” to Ukrainian students
With the support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Tony Blair - Founder and Patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and former UK Prime Minister (1997-2007) - gave a public lecture to Zavtra.UA scholarship holders and Ukrainian students on Monday, June 6, in Kyiv. The lecture entitled “Faith and Globalization” focused on the role and impact of faith in today’s world.
Before lecture, Tony Blair presented two programs of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to be implemented in Ukraine with the support of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
Tony Blair: “You cannot study the world today unless you study the importance of religion. The question is how do we make our world and our societies more inclusive, more open? The first is to promote very specifically dialogue, understanding between different faiths. And this is what my Foundation and Victor’s will be working on. And we have a number of activities; we have a university program that brings together universities from around the world to study the relationship between religion and society in today’s world, religion and conflict, religion and its place in democracy. These universities in different parts of the world will become partners of the Ukrainian graduation schools and we are happy to have this partnership in Ukraine”.
Following the lecture, Tony Blair answered a number of questions coming from young Ukrainians. Zavtra.UA scholarship winners admitted Tony Blair to their community, recently joined by Bill Clinton and Shimon Peres.Concluding his speech, Tony Blair said: “I’ve watched Ukraine over the last twenty years. I’ve seen it go through many changes. But one thing I’d like to emphasize to you above all things: you have a great opportunity as a country. This is an interesting and exiting country. It’s a country with very great potential. And in the end it’ll be your leadership and your generation that makes this country fulfill this potential. You here in Ukraine, think ahead now, you’ve got the most fantastic opportunity to make this country special, to make its people take their rightful place in the world and to create out of it something that provides inspiration and hope for the generation coming after you. Make it the best that it can be.”
