Cruise Report

Sept.20th

Today we had an event related to the Sustainable Developement Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are 17 goals related to development and environment that where adopted at the 2015 UN Summit. Peace Boat is recognized as an official campaign ship of the SDGs, promoting them onboard and at ports of call.

The purpose of the event was to connect a very diverse group of panelists with the participants in order to share knowledge and expertise independently of age and nationality. While raising the passengers awareness of the SDGs, we look that this events can be an opportunity for them to take action.

Guest educators Anne Mayeda, Ann Wright and Atsushi Yoshioka were invited as panelists along with other Peace Boat Staffers. Everyone shared a personal episode focused on the SDGs. Everyone paid a lot of attention to this multifactetic panel on environment, education, peace, gender diversity.

One of the most remarkable moments happened during the Q&A time. One of the passengers asked “Is achieving the SDGs the real goal?” to what one of the panelists answered -“If during your lifetime you become aware of these problem, there may be somehting you can do. Not doing anything is not a life choice. That is why I want to use my life in a way that it connects to solving these issues”.

With the SDGs one can think about many problems, from those close to ourselves, to the ones on a global scale. From there one can work on more detailed targets. I felt that this event was an opportunity to share our thought on how we can contribute to the future of this beautiful planet that we are traveling around.