VietNamNet Bridge – The support of Ambassadors is the great encouragement for VietNamNet Newspaper’s initiative of the Day of Reconciliation (September 9). They will popularize this idea out of Vietnam’s borders.

The US Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, was interested in this initiative when it was introduced the first time in September 2009. Attending VietNamNet’s Reconciliation Concert on April 22, 2010, Ambassador Michalak emphasized: “After 15 years of relationships with Vietnam, American have learnt one thing that we can trust each other and build our relations together. We are moving that way and we will pursue it. Step by step, I think that everyone will realize the value of reconciliation. Anything that can strengthen that feeling will be useful. This marvelous concert, which has the presence of conductor Charles Ansbacher tonight, relieves our hearts and souls. I’m very glad to attend this concert and I hope this idea will be pursued in the future.”

The Italian Ambassador to Vietnam, Andrea Perugini, also expressed special interest in this initiative after receiving a letter from VietNamNet, which conveyed the message of the Day for Reconciliation.

Famous American conductor Charles Ansbacher, who joined VietNamNet’s Reconciliation Concert in April 2010, showed his willing to cooperate with VietNamNet in its Reconciliation Day program. He said he would like to contribute further for this program and he is willing to return to Vietnam to participate in other concerts to support the meaningful Reconciliation Day initiative.

Prof. Thomas Patterson, director of the Shorenstein Center, Harvard University, sent a letter to VietNamNet on the occasion of the Reconciliation Day 2010. He wrote: “The challenge is to strengthen and extend the commitment to reconciliation. It will take an international effort, much like the one that led to the establishment of Earth Day, which is now celebrated in most of the world’s nations and has raised global environmental awareness. For that to occur, leadership - visionary leadership - will be required, and it will have to come from many places and through many venues. Vietnam is in the forefront of this effort, with its reconciliation concert and day. No country is better suited through its history, culture, and friendship with the world’s nations to provide this leadership than is Vietnam. The moment has come for peoples and nations elsewhere to follow its example, making September 9 the world’s Reconciliation Day.”

Prof. Tom Fiedler, former Miami Herald Executive Editor and Dean of Boston University’s College of Communication, also warmly supported this initiative.

Blair Wimbush, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Vice President of the Real Estate and Corporate Sustainability Office for Norfolk Southern, remarked: “We all wish the best things for the world: reconciliation and love. The initiative of the Reconciliation Day is a great idea. Let’s me show my consideration and admiration to the initiative that VietNamNet and Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan are pursuing.”

“This is a great idea and I hope that VietNamNet will realize it very quickly,” said Michael D. Tolbert, President of the Minnesota-based Hormel Foods Group.

Knowing about VietNamNet’s Reconciliation Day initiative, Ali Emir Adiguzel, President and Executive Director of the Turkey-based Heidelberg Cement Group, suggested his son, Yigit Adiguzel, 17, who is very keen on social activities, go to Vietnam to participate.

He said that Reconciliation Day is a noble ideal and it would be very good for his son to join this program and learn about reconciliation.

Officials from many business groups in over 30 countries like the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, India, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Chile, Brazil and Thailand also sent their letters to VietNamNet to show their support to VietNamNet’s initiative

This initiative is also backed by many journalists and managers of big media groups like Washington Post, Miami Herald, ABC News, Global Post and social activist groups in the US, Germany, Japan and India.

VNN