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 Project Princess Europa - Ambassador of Peace and Prosperity |
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Project Princess Europa - The Ambassador of Peace and Prosperity
The Project Princess Europa is about reviving the economical and cultural ties between East and West by rebuilding the bridges which the “universal” Phoenician society has once built through a flourishing trade and exchange of goods in Peace and Prosperity; furthermore they gave the European continent its name and the alphabet.
They miraculously managed to succeed in building an economical empire that prospered and flourished throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, without shedding a drop of blood.
Intuitively they knew the importance of the commerce route around the Med. which they have expanded under spreading their universal peaceful lifestyle and culture.
Thousands of years later, Europe in specific and the world in general are gradually following their footsteps.
Why Princess Europa?
As the ancient Lebanese Princess “Europa” and the Goddess for ancient Europe, it is unquestionable that she possesses the perfect combination to represent the East and the West. (For further Information about Princess Europa refer to Appendix1)
How?
We are building the largest Replica of a Phoenician ship in modern history- called “Princess Europa” and will set sails following the footsteps of the Phoenicians through the whole Mediterranean basin in summer 2011. On board will be 16 students- volunteers, a couple from each of the 8 participating countries who will be impersonating throughout the whole journey a Phoenician character related to their countries, wearing the ancient traditional clothes which complete through these roles our swimming interactive museum. Moreover they will present the Ministers of Culture/Tourism the alphabet engraved on tablets out of Lebanese rocks.
During the planned events at the ports, they will mingle with the visitors; debate among themselves their characters and their history. Also they will share up-to-date knowledge and topics about the East and West as well as the Mediterranean nations (cultural, social, economical and religious).
Princess Europa, the largest Replica of a Phoenician ship in the world will be touring the old Phoenician Mediterranean route creating events at 13 ports among 7 European nations and Tunisia
The ancient traditional clothes
One of the 8 Tablets - each uniquely hand-crafted by the famous artist Chahine Raffoul
The objective is to advocate the universal peace and prosperity through cultural and economical events that should exist between East and West by putting all our differences aside and look at the universal concept as a way of achieving peace and prosperity as it was done before by the ancient Phoenician civilization.
The Activities/Events
Tourism:
Event-1 “folklore dances”:
Dancing shows will be organized by local folklore groups and city halls with the assistance of their schools and universities.
Event-2 “sharing information”:
Exchanging touristic and cultural background information given by the participating cities to be distributed by the volunteers of that country to the public of the visited cities.
Education & Heritage
Event-1 “Museum ship”:
Princess Europa will be built to serve as a moving interactive museum. Two rooms on deck with 2 laptops each full of CD-ROM data rich of information about the history of each nation and altogether. It will also have sculptures, books, charts, clothes and pictures related to the Phoenician era.
Event-2 “Phoenician Characters”:
The 16 volunteers from 8 Mediterranean nations will be impersonating Phoenician characters throughout the journey. Each character will be chosen in correlation with their own national history. They will be filmed while debating visitors and or each other about their character and other important historical information to be used for the DVD documentation of the journey.
Event- “The Phoenician alphabet”:
Ministers of culture and tourism are invited to be presented at the ceremonial reception in each port by the volunteers with the Phoenician alphabet engraved on tablets made out of rocks.
Creating documented DVDs of two categories
A- Documentation for commercial use e.g. to be sold to TV stations such as National Geographic Channel, History or Thalassa.
B- Low cost production aimed at distribution among schools and universities for free which will have a lasting revive of the common history.
Improve the image of the Middle East specially and encouraging tourism.
Creating a lasting economical benefits between East and West in general and among the participating nations in specific.
Economical
Sub-project “Mediterranean Business Directory (MBD):
Connecting companies and spreading their names and products all over the Med by creating a Mediterranean Business Directory MBD booklet and an interactive website specialized to serve and connect businesses;
A- PMO’s representatives has already initiated contact with all chambers of commerce in the 13 cities of the aforementioned nations (including Beirut) either directly or through their designated representative in their respectful embassies in Lebanon, to prepare and compile DATA of companies who are interested in expanding around the Mediterranean and /or doing business with other companies along the Mediterranean. These data will be picked up upon our arrival.
B- The Data will be organized and gathered in a booklet called “MBD” Mediterranean Business Directory, 300,000 copies will be printed and distributed in the 8 nations. The vast majority will be distributed among airports, airliners, high-end hotels, beach resorts, chambers of commerce, etc… Also, the gathered data will be used to create a website that will be continuously updated and open for new members.
Event-1 Product distribution
Participating sponsoring companies along with donor’s products will be distributed by the volunteers to visitors and the general public.
Event-2 Brochures distribution
Brochures for touristic sites of each of the participating nations made out by their ministry of tourism and or city halls will be handled to visitors and the general public during the events.
Bringing tourists to the cities/countries for the yearly planned events activities.
Making the participating cities known through the international media coverage.
The sailing trip will be set as an annual event. Participating nations will launch and receive the ship ceremony from one of its ports. Each year the voyage of “searching for Princess Europa” will be hosted by one of the participating nations.
Sponsoring companies will have their logo displayed at 13 Events in 9 Mediterranean Nations. Main sponsors name will be mentioned in all interviews.
Volunteers will be passing around product samples of the participating sponsoring and partner’s companies.
Charitable deliverable
The yearly Events are arranged by the city halls based on their cities historical background (the best event will win a monetary prize of $50,000 to be donated to the local orphanages in their city’s behalf including Best Event award by PMO).
C.H.A.N.C.E. (Come Help Aid Needy Children Educations)
CHANCE will be an educational center facility which will include dorms, sport and recreational areas to needy children off the streets, to help them arm themselves with knowledge to face futuristic challenges adequately.
History of origins
The first year of the Project planning was mainly characterized through in- depth studies about the Phoenician history, their culture, conventions and their whole unique civilization in general. During this time we were assisted and provided with ample of applicable and vitally important data by Dr. Salim Khalaf and Dr. Joseph Taouk, both Pioneers in this field.
Inspired by the in-depth researches result, the Project gradually grew and assumed the present final definite form.
Later on, the research was completed through the knowledge of Marine Engineer Captain Naaman Khoury and the boat builder Georges Barbour who has experience in building Phoenician boats of smaller sizes.
The complete phase of the research was and is supervised by Professor Clovis Karam from an academically point of view.
More than a year ago the boat construction started at the Port of Batroun. It was interrupted by a high wind storm that caused the boat to sustain serious damages by the fallen down steel girders from the collapsed hangar which it was been built under. Due to this incident the boat was removed and rebuilt this year at the Port of Sarafand and now is at 65% completion.
Meanwhile the precise plans for the sailing trip were created and the approvals for participation in the project of the Mediterranean countries were obtained. The Ambassadors assisted us in contacting the Ministers in their respective country (please refer to Appendix 2). Same confirmations were requested from the Mayors and the Universities (for the lists of the participating members please refer to Appendix 3 & 4).
Currently we are creating together with our expert’s the final plans for the interior of the ship based on unfortunately only rare written records. This included also the museum rooms and will be done within a month.
The preparation of the sailing trip including the events at the ports is in its final stage. Our administration team is currently contacting and negotiating about the conditions with the involved Universities, the Mayors of the ports of destination and the Ministers (Culture/ Tourism) of the participating countries. These agreements will be concluded by the end of this year.
We have recently received a commitment from an experienced German TV producer who is in negotiation with TV stations in Germany to produce the sailing trip on TV.
Our next step at the end of this year will be creating and preparing the final media campaign with the local, national and international media to advocate and highlight the project. The campaign will be launched in March 2011.
In April 2011 the arrival of the volunteers will be prepared and their costumes will be tailored by Papou Lahoud.
The ship construction will be finished latest in the beginning of May and several tests due to safety concerns are planned.
In the middle of May the volunteers will arrive to get comfortable with their roles and the ship.
Also during this time the departure event will be planned and it will be prepared from the beginning of June.
Names of the Researchers and Advisers
Dr. Salim Khalaf
Creator of http://phoenicia.org and president of
Phoenician International Research Center, Inc. (PIRC)
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Contributed with the design of the Phoenician clothing.
Dr. Joseph Taouk
Historian specialized in Phoenician History and author of over 120 books 32 of which have been translated into several languages.
Contributed with the Phoenician Characters background.
Marine Engineer Captain Naaman Khoury
(Head of ATCL Yachting club, Kasslic)
Contributed with the vessel dimension, construction and route plans.
Georges Barbour - Boat builder
Professor Clovis Karam –NDU (Notre Dame University)
History and Theology professor.
Serving as an advisor from the academically points of the project.
Dominik Wessely - TV Producer
Papou Lahoud - Costume designer
The Benefits
The participating countries / cities / Companies:
A- Highway of information sharing/ knowledge sharing (education)
B- Business connections between Mediterranean companies and beyond.
C- Promotion/ commercial for participating companies to advertise and distribute their products with the ship.
D- Providing touristic opportunities to all participating countries in the project via the distribution of the leaflets and brochures provided by each nation tourism industry.
E- Providing companies along the Med and beyond with opportunities of dealing with each other (MBD)
Enhance Lebanon image in the international arena, encouraging businesses along the Med and abroad to deal with each others. Measurement will be conducted via media tools and pollsters.
The Future
After the first sailing trip this Event will become annual and will be expanded by adding more state members for expansion like the Phoenicians did thousands of years ago. The ship will remain as a swimming interactive museum and inform about the latest research results in Phoenician issues as well as about up- to- date topics of the participating countries. Furthermore it will be used for cultural and educational purposes like renting rooms for seminar groups and taking students on field trips.
During the time at sea it is possible to book a cabin and gain the experience to travel like the ancient Phoenicians, or to hold a wedding party on board of Princess Europa. This will be mostly in the winter season, when the ship sails to the Arabian Peninsula, because of the storm season in the Mediterranean basin at that time.
The income will be used for the ongoing Project Princess Europa itself and to make Peace Missions Organization a self reliant NGO to support on shelf projects like the aforementioned Project C.H.A.N.C.E.
For more info: http://www.peacemissions.eu
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