Mary Lean finds some remarkable companions on the road from fear to love.

As always, the conferences in Caux were graced by the performances of several richly talented artists. Among them was American song-writer and guitarist Scott Christopher Murray. He told his story to John Williams.

John J Maresca is President of the Business-Humanitarian Forum Association, based in Geneva. He is a former US ambassador and business executive. This article is based on a talk he gave in Caux and a paper he wrote in The Washington Quarterly.

Some of the younger people attending the Caux conferences tell FAC about experiences that have changed their lives.

Tania Chatterjee and Nabnita Jit first heard about Asia Plateau, the MRA centre in Panchgani, India, whilst studying for their Master's degrees in Social Work at Baroda University in Gujurat. Tania Chatterjee comes from the steel-making city of Durgapur in West Bengal. Nabnita was originally from the state of Orissa but her family now live in Baroda.

Marijana Longin was 17 in 1991 when her country, Croatia, declared independence from Yugoslavia. Until then, Serbs, Croats and people from other ethnic minorities had lived peacefully together in her town, Zadar. They even celebrated each other's religious festivals. Now, with the propaganda from all sides stirring up hate and fear, many of the Serbs fled to Yugoslavia.

How often do we see in person someone whose daring and perseverance have inspired a hit movie? Rarely, for most of us. So it was a special treat to see and hear Erin Brockovich at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC. I'd already seen Erin Brockovich, the movie, and admired her relentless search for proof that water pollution by a large utility was the cause of widespread illness in a small community in California. With the help of friends and a major law firm she fought for what became the largest ever direct-action lawsuit settlement in US history.

The first of two Agenda for Reconciliation conferences focussed on peace-building initiatives. It included private 'dialogues of the heart' between citizens from the Great Lakes area of Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Uganda) and also among people from Sierra Leone; and a round table meeting of people from Bosnia Herzegovina involved in setting up a truth and reconciliation process there. Here we print extracts from Donald Shriver's keynote speech on forgiveness, and (below) Mary Lean meets some of the peace builders who took part.

Good governance starts with individuals, discovers Paul Williams.

Over recent years those working with MRA have perceived the need to initiate change within MRA itself. Not the core values and beliefs, which are inviolable, but the name, which for many has lost its original timeliness. So, at an international consultation this summer, the decision was taken to adopt Initiatives of Change as the name for global MRA.

Educating women is the key to eradicating poverty and hunger, said Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme and Under-Secretary General of the UN. It would break the vicious circle of malnourished and mal-educated women giving birth to malnourished children.

According to the IMF, crime and corruption cost $1,500 billion a year, he said.

'The liberal democracies of the industrialized countries cannot live in a fortress isolated from history,' said Ambassador Mohammed Sahnoun, Deputy Secretary General of the UN. Some spoke of the 'end of history', following the victory of liberal capitalism over communism.

Mgr Bernard Genoud, Catholic Bishop of Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva, criticized 'the illusion of knowledge' and teaching rooted in technique 'without any reference to values'.

Rubens Ricupero, the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), called on governments to dialogue with anti-globalization demonstrators. 'Otherwise we are heading for an increasingly violent confrontation. These movements express an understandable fear and anguish.' He discerned 'a pervasive desire for something that goes beyond the economic'.

Thirty people from political life took part in a three-day round table conference on good governance.