Ten years ago, during a break at a meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and then-Czech President Václav Havel went for a walk.

They talked about the past and the future. They talked about hope.

"We wanted to know that my past will not become our children's future," Wiesel recalled. "The quest for hope is as contagious as any disease."

Forum 2000 was born out of that walk, Wiesel said Oct. 8 in the keynote speech at this year's annual conference of ideas and debate. For the past 10 years, the forum has brought some of the best minds in politics, economics and culture from around the world to Prague.

"The world is increasingly in danger, and there is a sense of hopelessness," he told The Prague Post after his speech. "But we can build hope. By the very fact that we are together here means that there is hope."

The theme for this year's conference, held Oct. 8–10, was "The Dilemmas of Global Coexistence." But it was also a time to raise a glass to Havel, still an icon to many throughout the world, who turned 70 Oct. 5.

There was even a surprise birthday gift at the glitzy opening ceremony at the Prague Crossroads in Old Town: a performance by singer and political activist Joan Baez, a longtime friend of Havel.

Dressed in an emerald-green wrap top and long black skirt, she took the stage with acoustic guitar in hand to sing three songs, including a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine."

Back in his dissident days, Baez said after her performance, she and Havel would meet in Europe to "raise as much hell as we could."

"When Havel was a dissident, he carried my guitar for me. And I was his bodyguard," she joked.

Havel has said her music, which often centers on civil and human rights issues, influenced the 1989 revolution that toppled Czechoslovakia's communist government without any bloodshed.

Havel has long been the face of that iconic revolution.

"You have been a light ... and a symbol of courage," Wiesel said, addressing Havel. "You have brought great dignity and honor to your extraordinary little nation."

Much has changed in the world since Forum 2000 began in 1997.

"Ten years ago, we had more hope. Now, we have a world in considerable crisis," said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and one-time United Nations high commissioner for human rights. "I feel the values of the forum are even more needed now."

The challenge of change

Others agreed as the conference set about its work at the first of eight sessions that stretched over two days at Prague's Žofín Palace on an island on the Vltava River.

Prominent figures in attendance this year included former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former crown prince of Jordan El Hassan bin Talal, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell and former Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda.

"It's not enough to search for solutions only on the national level," Boutros-Ghali told the delegates during a Monday, Oct. 9, discussion. "We can't limit ourselves to the boundaries of individual states."

As in past years, discussion was on a global scale.

Delegates discussed global coexistence in the context of many current events, particularly the continuing threat of terrorism, the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East, the political unrest in areas like Georgia and Chechnya and human rights violations around the world.

Conference delegates also cited a worrying trend: the stagnation in the spread of democracy worldwide.

In the 10 years of Forum 2000, the global growth of democracy has slowed significantly, and in some regions it has even regressed, said Ghassan Salame, a former Lebanese cultural minister.

Delegates butted heads on some issues, particularly when the topic of the Middle East arose. But all agreed that leaders needed to take a stand against the issues that threaten global security and well-being. And, citing that need, the conference again returned to Havel, or at least what Havel still represents to many.

"There's very little strong moral leadership today. Politicians sometimes need a little encouragement to get there," said Robinson.