Becoming
Humane - Being Humane Evolution of the
Humane - Globalisation of Peace - World in
Balance International
Solidarity The
Tsunami's Lesson Wolfgang
Fischer (
pdf.file
) (Spanish) ( German
version
) at the beginning of
this year and after the experience of the tsunami I have
some questions and thoughts which I would like to share with
you and I hope to provoke your comments. What is to be
learned? Why on the one hand
do we react with such a warm-hearted solidarity after the
recent tsunami and why, on the other, do we hardly react to
the devastating effects of war, world economic disorder and
modern way of life? What is it that
keeps us from vigorously striving to overcome poverty and
global injustice? The world is
overwhelmed by the sheer number of victims of the Asian
tsunami. Nature struck on a Christmas holiday. Nature struck
internationally and struck people of various religions and
different mentalities. Victims are not just strangers of a
foreign and far away world, they are our families and
neighbours. 1000 missing people in Germany. An estimated
number of 160,000 dead victims. Feeling confronted by
destructive cosmic forces, people often ask: why does God
allow such distress and misery? Contrary to daily
coverage of warfare we find pictures of sorrow all over the
world's media. Crying Westerners, mourning nationals from
India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other nations. The same pain
everywhere. We realize: Humanity feels identical pain and
sorrow everywhere in the world. The pain related to the loss
of dear ones reveals that national, ethnic or religious
differences do not really exist at all. Broad solidarity
arises and much help is being offered. Be it money, human or
technical resources. International help in money totals 4
billion dollars. All the same, we have
to bear in mind that «the US government has so far
pledged $350m to the victims of the tsunami, and the UK
government £50m ($96m). The US has spent $148 billion
on the Iraq war and the UK £6bn ($11.5bn). The war has
been running for 656 days. This means that the money pledged
for the tsunami disaster by the United States is the
equivalent of one and a half day's spending in Iraq. The
money the UK has given equates to five and a half days of
our involvement in the war.» Quoted from George
Monbiot, The
Victims Of The Tsunami Pay The Price Of War On
Iraq January
06, 2005. And George Monbiot
concludes: «If our leaders were as
generous in helping people as they are in killing them, no
one would ever go hungry.» An estimated number of
160,000 tsunami victims has created a giant wave of
solidarity. The victims have even triggered a fresh
motivation towards the abolition of the debts of
disadvantaged countries. The responsibilities of rich
countries, justice and the human relationships of nations
and religions are now topics in the media. All the same, a
ruthless capitalist mentality launched a cynical counter
attack: the abolition of debts would ruin the credibility
of the poor countries (Marc Beise, Süddeutsche
Zeitung, January 08/09 2005). Isn't it high time we
took advantage of our tsunami softened hearts and open our
minds to create a phalanx of solidarity also in respect to
the 150,000 children who starve regularly every 6 days due
to the murderous effects of our world economic system?
In their case people
neither blame God nor fate because they very well know
that poverty, hunger and starvation are all man made.
Victims of the wheeling of political interests are just
being banned from public perception as usual. Let us make use of the
present impressions of distress and sorrow. Let us face
global misery and let us be touched so we can realize our
responsibility. Let us stop arguing about which religion is
better than another or which ideology or which political
programme. Let us stop dividing people into believers and
non-believers, into equals and un-equals. Let us all
together react in solidarity and vigorously support global
movements for social and ecological justice. Our job on earth is to
create an existence which does no harm, which eases
ourselves and our environment from the burden of cosmic
challenges and catastrophes and which, at the same time
respects natural laws which some people consider to be of
divine origin. Serving each other is the best service we can
imagine. Comforting and supporting each other is what a
service to God is meant to be. Let us leave behind
traditionally rooted doubts concerning our abilities and
capacities. We already know better. Let us start to
believe in ourselves! Let us start to hope for the very
best. Let us effectively change the social conditions on our
planet. Let us produce and live a politics for life.
Let us shift our
attention from where it is to the global common good.
The one and only
relevance is improvement of the overall quality of all life.
Let us learn the
tsunami's lesson. We are of the
same flesh, spirit and origin - and we know
it. If philosophy
ever wants to be meaningful to global survival; if ideology
honestly wants to serve the common good; if religion
truthfully aims to link humanity with the source of life and
the origin of everything; they finally and jointly need to
start taking care of the social and political necessities of
any very moment. ------- Tsunami
Teachings: Reflections for the New Year,
by Vandana Shiva (January
23, 2005) Gaia could not have
picked a more appropriate time and place to send us a
message of her hidden powers, and the message that we are
Indians and Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Swedes, Thai's and
Maldivians only secondarily - we are first and foremost
citizens and children of the Earth sharing a common fate of
a shared disaster, and a common desire to help and heal.
(read
more) ------- World
Solidarity Declaration from the Club of Budapest
(source:
http://positivenews.org.uk/cgi/zyview.pl/D=articles/V=story/R=1363
) The tsunami
catastrophe in Southern Asia touched the entire human
community at a level and in a way never before experienced.
The community's first response was the provision of
emergency relief that was likewise of historically
unprecedented magnitude, promptness, and spread. This is a
sign of great hope for our common future. In the long term,
however, something more is required: a worldwide dialogue
must begin on concrete steps that could lead beyond the
present unsustainable condition of the world toward a more
stable, peaceful, and sustainable civilization. The tsunami
catastrophe, with its enormous human cost, must wake us up
and impel us to learn. This opportunity is historic and not
to be missed. The question we
face is this: do we accept that the world is so unequally
and unjustly divided that in some countries, regions, and
continents there are no early warning systems to avert major
catastrophes whether they are of natural or of human origin;
that there are no adequate infrastructures for assuring an
existence of human dignity for all the people; and that only
the actual occurrence of a catastrophe that involves
millions of people reaches the mind and touches the heart of
the rest of the human community? Or will we seize
the opportunity to learn from the experience of a major
tragedy to develop the vision and the solidarity to see all
of humanity as one family and reorder our priorities and
restructure our relations accordingly? We need to launch a
process of worldwide discussion and dialogue on practicable
ways to pull ourselves up to the level to which our
technologies of production and communication have already
precipitated us: to the level of the biosphere as a whole,
where all people now live in interaction and
interdependence, and must also learn to live with mutual
respect and solidarity. We invite all thinking people and
humanistically oriented organizations to join the call for a
global dialogue on ways and means to create an inclusive and
peaceful Sustainable Civilization. The Club of
Budapest was founded by Professor Ervin Laszlo, one of the
world's foremost experts on general evolution theory. It is
an independent organization of likeminded persons who wish
to come together in the interest of working toward a better
future for all. Members include, HH The Dalai Lama,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane Goodall,
Mary Robinson, Liv Ullmann and Peter Gabriel. The Club's
core objective is to create and implement holistic solutions
to problems that face the entire human family in a
participatory way. FURTHER INFORMATION
: CLUB OF BUDAPEST International Headquarters e.V. Planet
Plaza Hombroich D-41472 Neuss Germany Fon 02182-886109 Fax
02182-886119 office@clubofbudapest.org WEB
SITE : http://www.clubofbudapest.org
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/human/tsunami.html
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support our effort if possible also
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Emanzipation
Humanum,
version 11th, January 2005, Criticism, suggestions as to
form and content, dialogue, translation into other languages
are all desired
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/human