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Written by V. Yakunin
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Wednesday, 28 December 2011 08:06 |
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Article by the Founding President of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” Vladimir Yakunin
The events that have evolved over the past 25-30 years have yet to be thoroughly analyzed but even today it seems quite apparent that the world, on the whole, has entered another large-scale, social-political and economic transformation. Such a conclusion was tabled at the last few conferences of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations.” It was precisely at such a Forum that is held annually on the Greek Island of Rhodes that we came to such a conclusion back in 2005 about mounting tensions and the inevitability of an economic crisis. However, about the same time, just before the onset of the global financial-economic crisis, the Davos Forum boastfully announced coming remarkable economic prospects.
As I view it, lying at the basis of the events taking place in Russia – events of which we are both witnesses and participants – there is a maturing feeling of all-embracing injustice. This injustice or unfairness concerns the life we are leading; this injustice pertains to the arbitrariness of official functionaries; this also holds true of the unfairness concerning the blatant disregard on the part of the oligarchic elite of business circles for their country and their people; and, of course, this concerns the impermissible property inequality that we are witnessing.
Yet we are but a part of the deep-running worldwide social-economic transformation that is picking up steam. And the political catastrophe following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the whole socialist camp acted as the trigger that launched this process. The visible signs of this process are seen in the violent destruction of Yugoslavia and in the supposedly “peaceful” collapse of several other European countries, as well as in the systemic crisis of the Western world – something which today is conceded by all experts and political scientists; a systemic crisis that was brought about by the last global financial-economic crisis.
In his works, the eminent Indian futurologist and one of the founders of the WPF “Dialogue of Civilizations,” Jagdish Kapur, pointed out that the world of consumption, created on the basis of neo-liberal theory technologies has led to the degradation of western society and to snowballing extreme social-economic inequality. All this may inevitably lead to a catastrophic “clash of civilizations.”
Judge for yourself. Beginning with 2008 the leaders of the most advanced countries, including Russia, repeatedly met at G7, G8 and G20 format conferences in an effort to elaborate systemic measures for overcoming the crisis. However, as a result of all this, the second wave of the crisis which we had predicted back in 2008, swept over the world evermore powerfully. There is good reason here to ask: why?
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 December 2011 08:26 |
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Written by Kamran Mofid
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Monday, 19 December 2011 11:48 |
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 A paper by Kamran Mofid presented at AN INTERFAITH DAY IN LONDON Into the Heart of the World, Sponsored by International Association for Religious Freedom; with World Congress of Faiths & Religions for Peace; Hosted at London Central Mosque & The Islamic Cultural Centre, 7 December 2011
Introduction and Abstract
The topic which I wish to address here is vast; all I can reasonably hope to do is paint a picture with very broad brushstrokes. I wish to argue that economic and business decisions impact many aspects of our lives, whilst they also raise important moral and ethical concerns which call into question what it is to be a human being. I will argue that decision-makers (contrary to what is mostly practised today) need also to concern themselves with the world of heart, mind and spirit.
Although self-interest is an important source of human motivation, driving the decisions we make in the marketplace every day, those decisions nevertheless have a moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions, because each decision we make affects not only ourselves but others too.
I also wish you to note that, this brief synopsis is not addressed to the learned, or to those who regard a practical problem merely as something to be talked about. No profound philosophy or deep erudition will be found in the following pages. I have aimed only at putting together some remarks which are inspired by what I hope is common sense, and mostly further inspired by the wisdom of those before me. I have learnt greatly from the wisdom of others, and I wish to share a bit of that with you. All that I claim for the recipes offered to the reader is that they are as such confirmed by my own experience, observation, and most importantly, by my enriched life journey, both personally and professionally. On this basis I venture to hope that some among those thinking about the same and other related issues may find this contribution helpful.
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Last Updated on Monday, 19 December 2011 12:02 |
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Written by Adrian Pabst
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Sunday, 04 December 2011 21:47 |
 Occupy Wall Street and cognate groups around the world are part of a protest movement that is both global and local. It is global in terms of geographic scope, thematic range, and social composition. It is local in terms of the specific objects of protest and the protesters’ goals. The organic blending of the global with the local is reflected in the very unfolding of this worldwide wave. As the Egyptian activist Asmaa Mahfouz has remarked, the various groups “work in symbiosis, learning from and imitating each others’ strategies . . . the call for Occupy protests came from Canada, the General Assembly structures came from Spain, and the outcry of ‘We are the 99%’ came from Italy. Many occupiers took inspiration from our Tahrir Square; now the Occupy movement across the United States is inspiring us in Egypt.”
The movement’s “glocal dynamic”—to coin an ugly phrase—is also visible in the protesters’ response to the violent crackdown that has already been unleashed in Cairo, New York City, and elsewhere. Just as Occupy Wall Street has triggered similar protests across the United States and encouraged the protagonists of the Arab Spring to continue their largely peaceful uprising, so too the brutal eviction is fueling the worldwide Occupy movement and strengthening the resolve of its local participants on Tahrir Square and the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Of course the global crackdown varies locally in nature, scope, and intensity; yet at the same time, it suggests that both nascent and mature democracies are compatible with police states that suspend core constitutional provisions and fundamental civil liberties.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 04 December 2011 21:52 |
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Written by WPF Dialogue of Civilizations
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Tuesday, 29 November 2011 22:49 |
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 The WPF “Dialogue of Civilizations” Executive Committee suffered a grievous loss, on November 28, 2011 after a serious illness passed away the Head of WPF Moscow Headquarters Expert Group Aleksey Gennadievich Schubakov.
He was a great person, whose contributions to the development of modern Russian civilizations studies, dialogue and communication systems theory stand beyond any comparison. He was for a long time the bright and insightful World Public Forum’s strategy planner, most of Forum’s conferential and public activities were widely supported by his ideas. Unique expert in Ancient Greek philosophy, renowned for his major contribution to cultural discourse of Antique paideia, distinguished authority in Eastern-Orthodox spiritual and intellectual tradition, he was an uncompromising scholar and a very dedicated friend, he passed away when his creativeness and intelligence were at the very top. His concept of permanent civilizational reproduction on basis of cultural memory renascence has founded the grounds for World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” theory and practice, appreciated and shared by thousands of experts all around the world.
The memory of Aleksey Gennadievich Schubakov, a person of encyclopedic knowledge and a committed Orthodox Christian, will always stay in hearts of those, who were honored to work with him.
World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” Executive Committee |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 23:22 |
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Written by Georg Diez
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Tuesday, 29 November 2011 10:54 |
 Jürgen Habermas is angry. He's really angry. He is nothing short of furious -- because he takes it all personally.
He leans forward. He leans backward. He arranges his fidgety hands to illustrate his tirades before allowing them to fall back to his lap. He bangs on the table and yells: "Enough already!" He simply has no desire to see Europe consigned to the dustbin of world history.
"I'm speaking here as a citizen," he says. "I would rather be sitting back home at my desk, believe me. But this is too important. Everyone has to understand that we have critical decisions facing us. That's why I'm so involved in this debate. The European project can no longer continue in elite modus."
Enough already! Europe is his project. It is the project of his generation.
Jürgen Habermas, 82, wants to get the word out. He's sitting on stage at the Goethe Institute in Paris. Next to him sits a good-natured professor who asks six or seven questions in just under two hours -- answers that take fewer than 15 minutes are not Habermas' style.
Usually he says clever things like: "In this crisis, functional and systematic imperatives collide" -- referring to sovereign debts and the pressure of the markets.
Sometimes he shakes his head in consternation and says: "It's simply unacceptable, simply unacceptable" -- referring to the EU diktat and Greece's loss of national sovereignty.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 11:01 |
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Written by Adrian Pabst
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Monday, 28 November 2011 08:35 |
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 As the leaders of the G20 met in the luxury resort of Cannes on the French Riviera, popular outrage and protest movements were spreading across the globe.
From Occupy Wall Street to the camp outside St Paul's Cathedral, the protesters express a deep-seated anger aimed at global finance that is shared by ordinary people and certain elites alike.
Across the globe there is an implicit, inchoate sense that big business and big government have colluded at the expense of the people. Both centralised states and free markets are disembedded from society, and society is subjugated by the global market-state.
Through local vassals like the City of London Corporation, it subordinates social to commercial purpose, as Blue Labour's Maurice Glasman has argued.
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Last Updated on Monday, 19 December 2011 12:00 |
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Ninth Annual Session of the World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” was held on Rhodes Island, Greece, October 6 – 10, 2011. 
