|
GLOBAL DIALOGUE VISIONS OF A BETTER WORLD United Natious Hewadquarters, New York, September 8, 1993 |
|
  | |
|
|
THE BETTER WORLD DIALOGUE The Better World Dialogue was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 8th September 1993 as the core of a full day of activities to mark the launch of Visions of a Better World. This unique publication, which presents the hopes, aspirations and action plans of people from over 129 countries around the world, is intended to stimulate reflection, dialogue and a personal commitment to doing something to make the world a better place. The day’s events were hosted by the Permanent Mission of Benin to the United Nations and the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations, and organized by a committee of dedicated individuals. The Book’s message of hope and call for action drew together a powerful gathering of some 60 individuals for a morning and afternoon dialogue and some 300 people for the formal presentation of the book in the evening. The following record of the occasion includes largely unedited transcripts of some of the views and ideas exchanged. | |
The visions in the Book are very rich and they embody essential common values which
must underlie our actions in politics, in economics and the social arena.
During the hours ahead of us you will think of those common values and put
forward suggestions for specific action with a view to their implementation.
It is my fervent wish that this exercise concludes with a number of proposals
that would respond to the aspirations and hopes of the people for a better
world, a world of peace and of justice. Hundreds of thousands of people in over 120 countries have, over these last few years, been asked the one, same, simple question “What is your vision of a Better World?” People who had not thought about it came up with short answers. People with great academic ability and diplomatic skills sometimes gave longer answers. But in the end when we came to look at what had come in, flown in, from all over the world, analysed and sifted it with love and care, in each of the countries, the fascinating thing was that in essence every one said the same things. We have tried to encompass the globe in those who have given their views; from North and from South, from East and West, all faiths. This is not a religious book, this is not telling anyone what they should think, it is telling people what other people think, and perhaps if it has one single message beyond the yearning for peace and for a better world, it is that whoever we may be, we are to make as great a contribution as we can. It is fascinating as you look at the views that have come in, how refreshing they are. It’s fortunate that the recession does not seem to have hit the human mind! Peoples’ ideas, thoughts and hopes are as exciting as they were when their economies were better and they responded in different ways according to their circumstances, according to the country from which they come or the village in which they live. But there was, my dear friends, a second question that we put to people. Here is your vision, fine, what are you going to do about it? How can you convert that vision into reality? Produce your action plan of how you are going to turn what you would like to see into what will be for all people. This was with the thought that nothing in this world just happens. It’s either a result of divine inspiration, or it’s a result of individual commitment and effort; nothing just happens.
So that is what our task is today, to talk about where do we
go from here. I think I may be an optimistic man. I am an optimistic man,
but I think there are more opportunities today than 5 years ago, when we were
sitting here talking about what we were going to do. I believe that the new
openings, the new windows of opportunity, are here more visibly than they were
5 years ago. Before moving into the substantive exchange of ideas of the Dialogue, Lord Ennals called on the President of the Global Cooperation for a Better World project, Dadi Prakashmani, to share an inspirational message with the participants.
Om Shanti
This is the vision that I have had many, many times and I know it is our
desire to bring about that world very quickly. The purpose of our gathering
here today is to help achieve this. I know that it is God’s will that such
a world will come, but it is human responsibility to actually make it happen.
|
|
|
The moderators for the Dialogue were Canon Lloyd Casson, Chair, Global
Cooperation USA and Michele Hunt, Director of the Federal Quality Institute,
USA.
What does it mean to cooperate? Canon Casson outlined the format for
the Dialogue ...
What we are going to be doing today, in a dialogical way,
is to look at the dynamics of cooperation. What does it mean to cooperate?
It is clear that a vision, any vision, but a vision of a better world, is
only a vision before some action is taken - some action that is personal, and
some action that is taken collectively with others.
We begin with ourselves,
we begin also with situations in our own homes, in our own communities and also
have a global perspective. Meaningful cooperation, meaningful working together
is a synergistic process, a synergistic process which unleashes the human spirit,
drawing out positive energy, positive values and qualities among those who are
cooperating. This cooperation, this meaningful cooperation is the key to
realising the vision of a better world. So what we want to do today is to
explore those dynamics of cooperation. We will be asking ourselves several
questions. The first one is - based on the experiences that will be shared,
what positive qualities, values and other dynamics do you find repeatedly emerging
in the cooperative process in these experiences? What happens in a situation where
meaningful cooperation takes place? What does it take in your own situation, what
would it take, what does it take, to create or sustain that spirit of cooperation?
Three partcipants, who had been involved in the process of the Global Cooperation
project, and played a substantial part in its implementation, shared their stories.
Pearl Warner, former Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, New York
City Board of Education, spoke of how she was able to create opportunities and to
encourage directors to introduce Global Cooperation into the training programmes
for students and teachers. Being responsible for 65,000 teachers and about 1,000
public schools was no small undertaking, but for her it meant planting the seed
for a future world of understanding.
Drossoula Elliott, Publisher of The Athenian
magazine in Greece, spoke about the Science Symposium, first proposed during a Global
Cooperation Roundtable discussion and which, as an annual event, has grown from
40 scientists at the first symposium in 1990 to 120 scientists in 1993. The 1994
symposium will be held in Ushmal, Mexico. Drossoula explained that she felt that
the symposia would contribute to a major change in the world by helping enable
spirituality to be explained scientifically and science to be experienced spiritually.
Kyzystof Ostrowski, International Coordinator, Centre for Comparative
Research in Poland, spoke of his involvement in the project from its very
conception when he was assigned as the Officer responsible for the Costa Rican
resolution on peace.
In 1981 the Government of Costa Rica presented to the
United Nations a proposal to declare a Month, Day and Year of Peace. There
was no enthusiasm in the General Assembly and the matter was quickly sent for
ECOSOC analysis. I was assigned as the officer who would be responsible for
the implementation of this resolution. We had the ECOSOC session just at the
outbreak of the Falklands/Malvinas War and at that time peace was perceived as
something going on between states, that peace was mostly related to the avoidance
of wars; that was the most important issue. The task of celebrating the UN
Year of Peace was an unbelievable task. I was desperate for more than a year,
trying to find some common ground on which such programmes could be successful.
Peace was perceived mostly as an absence of war, as an interstate affair, as
related mostly to hostilities and the ways to avoid them. There was no positive
vision. What was inserted into the UN Charter, but was lacking in the UN practice,
was the reference to values, to building cooperation and contacts between and among
people based on values. The Brahma Kumaris’ input is based on values, but it is
not only of expressing values, there is also the emphasis on transferring values
into action. The project we are summarizing today, the Book, is exactly along
the same lines - it expresses values but presents them in a concrete form of
action.
Finally, the spirit of cooperation is based on no conditions and no
prejudice - the fact that there is a human being willing to share and cooperate
is the only condition. In the present world, prejudices have become a real factor
and danger in peace. This element or concept of cooperation with no conditions
and no prejudices is extremely important.
Michele Hunt, in reiterating the three
questions that were to form the basis for the Dialogue, explained why she believed
such gatherings to be so important. She said that she joined the Bill Clinton/Al Gore
Administration to liberate the human spirit within the organization. Her experience
prior to this has included working in the corporate world at Herman Miller and in the
Michigan Department of Corrections.
What we would like to do is to find a way, or
create the spaces for us to share our visions and experiences with each other.
The first question is: What are the common values that tend to transcend meaningful
collaboration around this great mission of creating a better world?
Second: What happens, what does it feel like when we are really engaged in
meaningful collaboration and cooperation? What occurs, what are the results?
Third: How do we keep
this spirit going, how do we keep the convergence of this vision going and
accelerate it and continue to weave it throughout our world - not only moving in
the way it is going, but in places that it hasn’t caught fire yet, where the human
spirit hasn’t been liberated?
Dialogue, of course, as we know, is not discussion;
dialogue is the understanding that flows between us and through us.
The participants were asked to break up into small groups. Their task was to
explore the internal dynamics of cooperation on the basis of the three
questions outlined above.
Their comments included the following:
We started out talking about common values
in cooperation and came down to saying that it is essential to know oneself in
order to know another. The idea of truly knowing another seemed to be very
important to us in talking about building honesty, trust, celebration of diversity
and common vision, as values surrounding cooperation. We thought that people
were experiencing a hunger for community; we need to create spaces where people
can experience community. It is really in those small spaces of family, of
community, of church where we need to begin to build that cooperation.
Since I only speak Spanish I have not understood completely
what you have been saying in English, but upon seeing your clear eyes and
your generous faces I understand that we are dealing with something truly good.
I am certain that one day we will build a world in which regardless of one’s
language one can speak with one’s eyes. I would like to share with you three
aspects which we discussed in our group.
The first aspect is the one that
deals with our own notion of what a person is, of what a persona is, because
that of course affects our behaviour. Whoever respects and loves human beings
will be able to handle the economy, politics, science, the arts and international
relations. We believe that the human being regardless of his or her colour,
national origin, or culture, is perfect, worthy of love and respect.
Second:
The world in which we live, for various reasons that you are obviously familiar
with, is not very respectful of man or of the individual. That is why we still
have people who suffer from deprivations, from being marginal to society and from
unfair treatment.
Third: how can we change this world, how can we make it into
a world that is respectful of this wonderful category that is called the persona.
When we say change the world, we must, first of all, change ourselves. Each
of us can change, that is to say, if man or woman changes, then everything else
will automatically change because everything is a result of man’s behaviour.
If human beings change, economics will change; if he changes, science will
change; if he changes so will social relationships and then we will be able
to talk about a world of peace, of solidarity and of freedom.
Our group commented on the dynamics of working
together as being the most beautiful thing that has been happening here.
We talked about three things that start with the letter E. The Enthusiasm that
we need to convince people of the worthiness of this, and how to develop that
enthusiasm. This is related to the second thing which starts with E - Example.
In the new paradigm of leadership, a leader is not someone who charges out
in front and expects everyone to follow, but a leader is someone who is an
example. And though we are not perfect we should strive towards consistency
between what we think and what we do. Also to permit ourselves to make mistakes
if we are able to learn and change from them. The third thing, which is
problably the most important of them all, is Educate. Now we must remember
that the real meaning of the word educate comes from the Latin word Educari,
which means to bring out, to bring out that which is already there. We have
to believe that it is there and just educate in the right sense to bring it
out. Perhaps if we put all these Es together we will conquer the big F,
which is fear, the greatest obstacle to change.
After a very enriching exchange of participants’
ideas and experiences,
Carolyn Lukensmyer, Deputy Director of Vice President Gore’s National
Performance Review, movingly shared some of her personal impressions.
I actually have the pleasure of representing Vice President Gore, who just
yesterday presented to President Clinton a bound volume with the dedication
of the United States Government to changing how it operates - or set in lay
person’s language, how to make it work better and cost less.
Like every other
major institution in the world, the United States Government has long since
needed to change its form. We live at a time when the individual’s consciousness,
as has been demonstrated around this circle, is far ahead of the consciousness
which sits in the centre of organized power. And as responsible human beings it
is our task to use our talents and our gifts, at every opportunity in which
they are given to us, to change those institutions to bring them into alignment
with the more comprehensive, complete and holistic understanding of what it
means to be human, of what it means to wield power, and of what it means
to be responsible citizens.
My own personal vision for a better world is
seeing a land where children can run free, where there literally is no
fear to keep us from taking the actions we should take, to be who we all
know we should be. I believe that history will look back on this time,
and if we fail history will write about us as the Information Age. And
if we succeed history will write about us as the Age of Consciousness.
It is literally every person’s responsibility to turn their individual
and collective vision into how they take action on a daily basis. Who
would have believed we would have lived to see the signing of the Israel
and Palestine pact? Who would have believed we would have lived to see
the Berlin Wall fall?
We need people who are able to see beyond what
they expected to live to see. And then to have enough courage in their
convictions to take a stand every day to turn that consciousness into a
collective reality.
|
|
|
The afternoon session was dedicated to formulating practical proposals
of how to make the visions into a reality. After a few brief presentations
the participants again broke into small groups to discuss cooperatively
specific suggestions for “living the vision”. The groups formed around
the following areas:
A spokesperson for each group presented its proposals to the gathering
as a whole.
Those values we have been discussing need to be implemented
to be carried out. How to do that? It is what my friend Ernesto and
myself are trying to do and we want to present to you some recommendations,
not for adoption, but just for consideration.
In the preamble part of the
document we try to present the different values we have been dealing with,
stressing the fact that the Brahma Kumaris Organisation has been deeply
involved in efforts to make everyone become aware of the necessity of the
transformation of the self. We realise that without the transformation
of the self there wouldn’t be the transformation of the world as a whole.
It is also our view that we should decide to organize a meeting of the
Dialogue every year on September 8 at the United Nations.
(The text of the revised Recommendations is set out in Appendix 1)
What is gong to come next? Who is
going to be responsible for spreading these ideas and making them work?
The UN is working hard through hundreds of specialised agencies trying to
help to improve the world. The United States has hundreds of programmes
to assist the under-developed countries, and yet we have not been able
to resolve the problems of the world. The reason is because the people
themselves in all countries are not participating, they are not involved.
We have to reach the people, all the peoples, everyone who cares about
these things, and that is why we have proposed the recommendation that all
of us, when we go back to our communities, organize an institution that is
going to be responsible for implementing all these visions expressed in
the Book. In other words we should build up a structure in each country
to implement the visions. We should organize National Associations for
implementing the visions of Global Cooperation for a Better World. This
national organization should be tapping all resources to implement these
visions and make them work. These organizations would connect with the
other national organizations, and then we will have a Network of Associations
working together.
The proposal suggests that in each country a small group,
according to the laws of the country, organize, as I said in our case;
The Bolivian Association of Citizens for Global Cooperation for a Better
World. The purpose of the organization is to promote understanding, to
eliminate existing barriers and to support, encourage and promote all
actions conducive to a better world. Especially to convert those visions
in the Book, in the UN Charter, in the Declaration of Human Rights, and
especially The Global Vision Statement in the Book, into action. In other
words this organization, starting with 6, 8, or 10 people, will start spreading
the word, in that particular country or community. Later, in 1995, when we come
to New York to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations, we could
form an International Association. The National Associations that have been
formed will form the International Association here in New York, according
to the laws of the state of New York. This association would have the
responsibility of coordinating worldwide the actions that we are going
to undertake in each country. This has to be done all over the world.
I am head of a foundation
called Together Foundation for Global Unity. Our stated goal is to connect
people electronically and by other means. We have a headquarters in
Burlington, Vermont, where we have a multi-million dollar computer
installation and we are providing networking facilities for groups, individuals
and non-governmental organizations that need to be connected but don’t have
the means to be connected. Our foundation is a private foundation and we do
the work together with the University of Vermont. I will offer to everyone
present a free membership so that you can try it out without risk.
Our idea was to create an association of life-long learners called
The Learning Society, which would have no documented boundaries. In other
words it would be a business, or school or government group, or just
individuals who would like to identify themselves as life-long learners
and in some way network and participate in an organization where they
could identify with others of similar interest.
Some thoughts that came through were a
series of TV programmes, with people who are making a difference in the
world. Also, TV drop in features which may be a minute long, something
a little less ambitious than a full series, that could be dropped in as
public service announcements, at local stations across the country.
Another idea, CD ROMS, where once you have seen whatever is initially
presented then you can go in deeper and find out more practical
information, and explore, which is particularly suited for children.
Also one of our thrusts was to present material that empowered people.
Not just to present to people what other people are doing, but to make
it accessible to everyone who listens or receives it, that this is work
they can do, so it inspires them and enables them in some way. The listener
or the viewer could feel that he or she could make a difference and I think
that is our key.
We want to encourage the spirit of this vehicle in all of our communities and not just
limit it to one governmental organization in each country. We want the
spirit of this project to reach out into many hundreds of small communities
around the country. In order for that to happen we do need some level of
umbrella organization, some vehicle that is compatible with the Brahma
Kumaris and the United Nations. We came out feeling that we really needed
to create a steering committee of people, made up of those of us who are
interested in this project and committed to this vision, to set up guidelines
for people to then create their own committees throughout the world, whether
under government auspices or not.
We did emphasize the fact that if we are to make a change
in the concept, in the understanding of youngsters of their own self worth,
we do have to start with the family at home. So we were trying to delineate
certain activities that would involve parents and children that would have
maybe two sides; one the social side and one the educational side. Little
by little, build up so that we can have the young child involved in activities
that would expose that child to other cultures. Then perhaps involve the older
children in activities that would lead toward meaningful careers, internship,
that sort of thing, so that they understand what happens outside in the world
of work. All because we want to raise the self image of the child which
would certainly prevent the conflicts that we see socially and in the
schools.
It was mentioned that the presence of college and
high school students would have been helpful and that their participation
at such events was essential because of their idealism. It was also
suggested that audio and video educational programmes be made available
to every student who asks for them, free of charge.
Another participant asked if there could be a United Nations designated
year of Self Respect or Mutual Respect.
This convergence is leading everyone to not want to
dissolve but to continue to build networks upon networks, so that the
learning becomes contagious, and taps into each of us.
I basically came in to partner with the Administration to help break down those
unnatural systems
in the Federal Government of the United States, to liberate people to be the
best that they can be. So part of the mission of Re-Inventing Government is
getting the government out of the way and having government serve more as a
catalyst role than in a control role.
So our vision is to build a Network
of Networks which literally has one mission and that is to learn from each
other and hopefully from that and other networks just create and engage in
collaborative research and sharing. This will be owned by a collaboration
of people, leaders, organizations that cross boundaries, state and local
governments, education, business, community, grassroot leaders and individual
gurus.
CLOSING REMARKS
I would like to propose that we close with a moment of silence, as
a way of being thankful for this experience and asking for God’s guidance as
we leave and commit ourselves to working together to realise a Vision of a
Better World.
|
|
THE PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK The evening saw a presentation of the Book, again in the United Nations Headquarters, to a distinguished gathering of diplomats, representatives of international non-governmental organizations, citizens’ groups and the local community. In his opening remarks, the host for the event, Ambassador Mongbe of Benin said:
This morning men and women of goodwill,
concerned by the state of the negation of mental values in which the world
finds itself, sought to determine appropriate ways and means for putting the
vision of the Book into action. Personally I was impressed by the profoundness
of the Dialogue this morning and this afternoon. The essential message
which I perceived from this exchange of views is that the world can change
only if we change and transform ourselves by taking in the spiritual values
of love, justice, honesty and integrity, which seem to have lost all meaning
in today’s world. We must have a new approach to life that adopts the
spirituality of man which up until now has been thought of as a field
set aside for certain groups of people.
I am really deeply moved in
presenting to you Under-Secretary-General, Dr. James Jonah, a man of faith and
conviction. You have the floor Dr. Jonah.
Om Shanti.
There are times too, when things
happen in the world that you cannot really explain successfully. Some people
believe that visions are just visions that could never be realized, but no matter
what expertise one can say one possessed in international politics, very few,
very few, could have predicted the dismantling of the Soviet Union in such
a rapid space of time. Very few would have predicted the breakdown of the
Berlin Wall. Yet this has been part of the vision that the people had, but
which we all thought to be unrealistic. We are now going through what may
become the miracle of all miracles - the resolving of the Middle East crisis
that has been with us for decades. At times one despaired and said well
there could never be a reconciliation between the Palestinians and the people
of Israel and yet we are on the threshold of what could be a final solution
to this problem. This was a vision in the minds of the people.
So I want to say that I personally welcome the publication of this Book and I will
tell you why I value it so much. As I and many of you begin every day,
reading the press or listening to the radio or watching television, you see
the depth of human depravity. We see horrible deeds every day, and people
wonder, how can we cope? I think one can cope because one may have a vision
of the dignity of the human being, of the dignity of the human soul. When I
see this depravity, when I see these real evil developments, I will get solace
from this Book. It will become a companion and I hope it will to all of you
too, because it may look to you as you read these visions that they are simple
minded, but don’t lose hope, they may be realized some day.
In introducing Dadi Prakashmani, Ambassador Mongbe
spoke of the imagination and spiritual approach that she brings to the
issues in question before giving her ther floor.
You will ask how can
that better world come? I would just like to tell you one little thing.
It is said: “Everything is in human hands”. If the world today has been
spoiled that is human responsibility and if the world is to be transformed
that also depends on human beings. It is human beings who cause peacelessness,
it is human beings that commit violence and it is human beings who will decide
to finish violence. When the human mind is pure then nature also is pure and
clean. Human beings have a responsibility and if human souls have this thought
together, then with everyone’s cooperation that better world will definitely
come. You and I, all of us want to have such a world. If one human being has
a powerful, determined thought that one is equivalent to a hundred, because
one person can influence his family, his community, society, his nation; so
in this way all of us together can create a very beautiful world. One coming
together with another, working together, can create heaven here in this world,
a world remembered as Paradise.
Visions of a Better World was presented by Dadi Prakashmani to Mr. Marco
Vianello-Chiodo, Assistant-Secretary-General of the Department of Public
Information of the U.N. After accepting the Book Mr. Vianello-Chiodo
remarked:
Some time ago I was reading where somebody in Switzerland
founded a newspaper called “Die positive”, in which they would write
about the positive things. We need so much of that in this world in which
we only talk about what divides us and not what unites us. We talk about
wars and catastrophes, death and enmity and we don’t talk about the many big
good things and the many small good things. The smile of a child, love,
happiness, togetherness; the feeling that humanity can be better. We will
cherish this Book and keep it and show it and we are going to do whatever we
can to bring this vision further down the road.
Christopher Drake, one of
the writers and compilers of Visions of a Better World, outlined how to use
the Book:
The book is intended to encourage people to go that one step further
and actually do something; hope alone is not enough. I think we all realize that
none of us can do it alone but together there is so much we can do and the Book
outlines ways of getting together and then doing something. It also asks us to
clarify what it is we really want and what are the values, what are the principles,
what is the personal commitment which each of us have to make in order for it to
happen.
The evening included the sharing of visions by some of the hundreds of
people whose visions are contained in the Book (including Ambassador Samuel
Insanally, President of the General Assembly for the year) and a number of songs.
The day was then concluded with a reception for all present and the evident
commitment and enthusiasm of many to help bring such inspiring visions of a
better world into reality.
|
|
It was remarkable to be part of a day to honour the impact of asking a single question: What is your vision of a better world? To honour a question. To set aside for one day all the troublesome realities that keep us from focusing ourselves on that question. To live with the question its potential for deepening impact on all our lives. When I left New York, after our session, there, beside me on the seat of the aeroplane, was an apt reminder of how hard it is to live with the question without creating excuses: it was a bright large card with a series of excuses for inaction. There were three excuses “My Mother won’t let me. I don’t have time. I didn’t know about it” I couldn’t help laughing at how appropriate the excuses were to our human lives, and the quandaries we face, and to the reasons that we have for not working to make the world a better place. As individuals. And as a globe. At least after our day together, I realise that I need no one’s permission, I will make time if it is important, and I surely know about it now. It seems important to note the way in which this work connects the individual vision of a better world with the broadest of institutions (the United Nations). In the past we have thought that shaping the vision was the task of leaders, of major institutions, who then reached down to individuals with the vision. Here are the people of the globe reaching out, and up and across time to link with the aspirations on which the United Nations itself was founded. And in our Dialogue about the project’s history and what comes next, the same link between the personal and global emerged and re-emerged. But we also seemed to be insisting that we not leave the roundtable without stating our intent to carry the work forward - personally and collectively, in the most concrete ways. We seemed to be opening paths in our lives and those of others, for articulating and sharing a vision for a better world - and then living somehow in the “as if” of that world. For me there was a real novelty and yet a resonance in the thesis that the path to such a world will be a spiritual one, a path of transformed consciousness. In my own educational work with leaders, I have come to understand that we will only transform the world around us when we are able to transform the world within us. The inner landscape must first be transformed and only we can do that transformation. No one can do this for us, and in the question of what is our vision of a better world is the stuff of that transformation. Yet, as one of us noted, we often think of vision, values and spiritual leadership as the domain of only a special few among us. Perhaps it is indeed time for vision and transformation of our consciousness to become the concern of all of us on this planet. By the end of the day, as I thought of all I had heard, and the resonance of so many of the words with my inner thoughts, I realised that I had lost a sense of boundary between your words and mine, between your thoughts about a better world, between your vision and my own. I began to see the way in which the project makes a single and simple and powerful vision possible. The process, as we realised, was one of affirming and reconnecting to the energies of those already part of the process, and using the gift of the Book to make this simple idea real.
It seems to me that the Book represents a commitment to respect
ourselves as whole human beings, and to honour the connection among us across space
and time - among us across generations to come, and to presume common ground at the most
fundamental level - about the kind of globe we wish to leave to the future. | |
|
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION BASED UPON THE GLOBAL COOPERATION FOR A BETTER WORLD INITIATIVE
Recommendation 1 All human beings should be aware that making a better world demands most of all that we desire a better world. | |
|
Individuals desiring a better world must make a commitment to achieve this aim through self transformation. This implies that:
| |
|
Human beings should understand the importance of the family as a core element of our society, wherein the values necessary to the welfare of our society should be taught and respected. | |
|
To reach the objectives in the Book, Visions of a Better World,
everyone should bear in mind “The Global Vision Statement” as follows:
| |
|
In a better world:
| |
|
The Dialogue refers to article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, paragraph 2, and reaffirms that “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and freedoms and that it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace”. | |
|
The participants in the Dialogue, after reviewing the role of the radio, television and computer systems in our societies, concluded that the mass media (TV, newspapers, radio) and all communications networks should be a vehicle to convey, throughout our planet Earth, the message of transformation for a better world. | |
|
To strengthen awareness of the need for action, the Dialogue
proposes that each Nation should have a National Committee for a better world whose
mandate will be:
| |
|
The Dialogue
proposes the organization by the United Nations of a World Conference for a Better
World to discuss the transformation of our planet through spiritual dimensions.
Considering that the political, economic and social approaches have not met response
to the concerns of the people of the world, the Dialogue is convinced that what is
the solution is the transformation of the people through a spiritual approach.
The World Conference for a Better World will help to reach that objective and
contribute to the creation of a world of love, peace, bliss and happiness.
| |
|
The Dialogue recommends that the Conference be organized
no later than 1995 in connection with the celebration of the 50th anniversary
of the UN.
| |
|
The participants of the Dialogue recommend that
the present Recommendations become document of the United Nations and be circulated
in all the languages of the United Nations
| |
|
MEMBERS OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE FOR THE BETTER WORLD DIALOGUE AND THE PRESENTATION OF VISIONS OF A BETTER WORLD 8TH SEPTEMBER 1993 UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
Koffi Adjoyi
| |
|
APPENDIX III:
ATTENDANCE OF THE BETTER WORLD DIALOGUE 8TH SEPTEMBER 1993 UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS
Mr Koffi Adjoyi | |
|
SPONSORED BY IBM CORPORATION | |
|
©2004 BKWSU |
