Humankind Advancing, Vol.12, No.3 July 2001
Theme: Countercurrents
CONTENT
Editorial
Acknowledgment for previous issue
Announcement
Quote from Sperry
Quotes from Planet America, from Alternatives, and from Thomas
Quotes from Berghofer and from Schwartz
Focus on Supremacy
Planet America -- A Globe and Mail Series (Review)
Focus on Responsibility
Biography of Christian de Laet
Ideas and Dreams
Robert Muller - My Dream 3000
Reflections
Acknowledgements
Humankind on "The Road to Reason"
Review of a book by Pat Duffy Hutcheon
References
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Editorial: Two broad currents run counter to each other through our culture: One is a refinement -- with the most advanced intelligence -- of the archaic drive to survive without concern for, and at the expense of, other living creatures. At the human level it developed into the striving for supremacy. The counter current, which is younger, is one of empathy with other sentient life, and of responsibility for the fate of our Earth. -- The most exciting events shaping our future take place within the whirls between those two currents.
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Acknowledgment for Previous Issue
I wish to thank Professor Paul Baltes for his permission to use excerpts from "Harvesting the Fruits of Age".
ANNOUNCEMENT
Beyond a World Divided by Erika Erdmann and David Stover is now available in Paperback from Authors Choice Press (owned by Barnes & Noble). This book, which was reviewed in the July 1991 issue of Humankind Advancing, is the first of the two books co-authored by Erdmann and Stover and dealing with the work and thought of neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Roger Sperry. It concentrates on the courage of a lonely fighter and his insight into the need to integrate facts and values, while the second book (by Stover and Erdmann) projects Sperry's thoughts against a larger historical background.
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I was led into an involved critical examination of the relation of science to values and of the basic foundations and structure of value belief systems, questioning the implicit premises, fundamental criteria, and the ultimate frame of reference behind ethical and moral standards -- all from the standpoint of the recent new views in the mind-brain and neurobehavioral sciences. The outcome is my strong conviction that these emotionally charged, but highly critical, human value issues are best faced and dealt with openly in rational terms.
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Excerpt from Globe and Mail Series "Planet America", Oct.14-20, 2000.
Economically, the United States is a world unto itself. It...accounts for 60% of the world's biggest companies. Its equity markets surge and its currency rules.
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Quote from Alternatives for Simple Living, Winter 2001:
Let us measure the success of America not by its number of billionnaires but by the number who are not hungry, or homeless, or in need of medical attention.
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Excerpt from a private letter:
The feeling of having already lived enough comes to mind very often and strongly -- not with a sense of sadness at dying, but with a feeling of fulfilment. It is a feeling, however, not of great achievements or successes but of a humble, solitary awareness and realization of the magnificence of the (human (?)) mind and its untapped potential to usher in a new era of harmony and collective- cooperative (NOT competitive) well being. I accept my solitariness -- the solitude full of connections to the living world.
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Excerpts from The Visioneer, Dec. 1999:
The courage called for in the future is moral courage. If we look to highly evolved minds for guidance and mentorship, we shall not choose the warriors or the conquerors or the conquistadors. Theirs was the courage and conviction of an earlier time now gone. Ours must be the courage that directs us to right action , being prepared to face, if necessary, personal adversity for doing it. There are many old ideologies and beliefs that must be put aside. Only by acting together with moral courage to create the new can we avoid the consequences of the centuries old destructive acquisitiveness and ethnic prejudice and hatred. In all our disputes -- and we can be sure there will be many -- we must choose the path of decency, civility, respect, compassion, and action that does not seek to harm. (P.3)
The air we breathe transcends national boundaries. The water and the earth on our planet are affected by how we care for or neglect any part. Moreover, it is through the air, the water and the earth that the waves of modern communication travel: the radio waves, the video waves, the microwaves, and all the waves yet undescribed and unharnessed, that allow us to talk to each other and to see the intimacies of each other's lives for good or for evil purposes....These images [of misery -- Kosovo, etc. -- and human nobility and striving] transcend every language and boundary, so that wherever people can read, listen to radio, watch television or film, there are those who listen, hear and are ready to connect and act. Thus we are building for the first time in history a commons of consciousness of the mind that no government or villain can control for their own exclusive use. In our time we are moving at great speed to build the technologies and the communication systems that will sustain the Commons. (P.4)
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FOCUS ON SUPREMACY
Review of the
PLANET AMERICA
Series in the Globe and Mail.
An impressive report about the dominance of America in a variety of fields has been published in the Globe and Mail between October 14 to 20, 2000. Each day of that week highlighted a different aspect of America's might:
Saturday - Overview
Monday - Diplomacy
Tuesday - Culture
Wednesday - Science
Thursday - Business
Friday -- Military
The author of the articles' overview calls the United States "a commercial, scientific and military powerhouse" and says that "it is now so dominant that next month's presidential vote is, in effect, a coronation of the king of the world."
Saturday, Oct. 14, 2000. -- OVERVIEW (written by Andrew Cohen):
The overview of the series starts with the description of "Exploris," the first global experience centre in the world, where children "watch live newscasts from 42 countries" and "create their own web site." Exploris is a metaphor for "connection" and "interdependence;" it catapulted the once self-centred rural town of Raleigh into accepting the fact that "it is part of something bigger."
If the reader imagines this "something bigger" to be the world at large, he or she is, however, quickly enlightened that the world pales in comparison to America. "Who can deny the supremacy of the United States today?" exclaims the author, "Industry, finance, technology and information give it economic power. Democracy, diversity and mobility give it moral power." -- Its diplomats declare that America's superiority is "built on prosperity at home and influence abroad." Americans are "suspicious of organizations and alliances they cannot control ... [and] resist the encroachment of the United Nations."
The future of America is seen as "an endless season of sunshine," the nation described as "benevolent, parochial, arrogant, materialistic, moralistic, and restless." Statistics to prove the country's superiority are cited in abundance; e.g. with 4% of the world's population, the U.S. produces 29% of the world's output, and its example led most nations to likewise adopt "the free market, free trade, property rights, deregulation and privatization."
Of course, a "yawning gap" exists between the U.S. and its challengers, with the States far ahead diplomatically, culturally, scientifically, and militarily. Ghenghis Khan and Alexander the Great "would be envious." -- We learn that its openness to immigrants from various backgrounds contributed much to the fecundity of thought and the might of the country and that "communication is the new deity."
Places like Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and the Silicon Valley in California are lauded for their rush ahead from undeveloped country places to pinnacles of technology. Philanthropy is blossoming because there is so much surplus money to spend. Without saying so directly, it is made clear that the craving for money and success are America's most prolific export articles. "Everywhere [in the world] they watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Only as an unimportant aside it is mentioned that there are millions without health insurance in the States.
The overview ends with an interesting list of "Imperial Ancestors": including the Babylonian and Persian Empires, the reach of Alexander the Great, the Roman and Byzantine domination of the then known world, the spread of the Vikings, the Mongols, and Ottoman's Turkey, the Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian acquisitions, as well as those of the British and the Dutch. -- America's dominance, it is maintained, differs from all of them. "American's don't plot. The world has come to them naturally, as if the universe were unfolding as it should."
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Monday, Oct. 16, 2000 -- DIPLOMACY: (Written by Geoffrey York)
American diplomats pursue their task with a dedication which surpasses that of other countries. Not only do they aim to establish good relationships with a foreign country in order to protect the trade and the interest of its investors, but beyond that they have an uncommon zeal to "do good," that is to liberate a foreign country from oppressive state authority and totalitarianism, and to introduce democracy.
The efforts of American diplomats in Azerbaijan "an inscrutable hybrid of Asian and Soviet cultures," are described as an example. The country, which contains vast oil reserves of great interest to the USA, is now free after an almost 200 year-long domination by Russia, to which many inhabitants still feel loyal. Its religion is Shia Muslim. Totalitarianism is taken for granted. Progress toward democracy is slow.
Though other Western diplomats also encourage democracy, it is the Americans' "stark, black- and-white vision of a heroic struggle against evil," pursued with "evangelical zeal ...combined with Washington's vast resources," that makes progress possible at all. It is admitted that U.S. diplomats "have a strength other foreigners lack. They spend money lavishly. They cultivate powerful friends in high places."
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Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000. -- CULTURE (Written by Doug Saunders):
The article on culture is dominated exclusively by Hollywood film productions and their successful battle against those who want to protect the culture of their own countries. It ends: "In Hollywood's eyes, we are all Americans, and we always have been. The difference, nowadays, is that now we are all effectively living in one country, the United States of Entertainment (emphasis added).
The bulk of the article describes with admiration the skilful methods of reaching that goal, including the efforts of certain promoters who "shrewdly aimed their ad campaigns at children under 12." Of course, that works. The Hollywood film industry appeals to ancient instincts, which are alike all over the world; but everywhere they have been refined by civilization.
For individuals aware of the value of local cultural achievements, the intrusion of the Hollywood- culture is very painful. -- While in 1908 the movie industry in the States was dominated by the French, who produced 70% of the movies shown in the US (which led to the complaint that American children "were being poisoned by French values"), in 1948 the same complaint was directed against the USA. A French government official undoubtedly expressed the sentiments of many other countries and cultures when he said in horror: "American films literally poison the souls of our children, young people, young girls, who are to be turned into the docile slaves of the American multimillionaires, rather than French men and women attached to the moral and intellectual values which have been the grandeur and glory of our nation."
Such voices do not affect Hollywood's progressing domination of the world's cultures. "Last week, all of Mexico's top 10 movies were products of Hollywood, as is the case most weeks.".... "American TV shows, dubbed into dozens of languages. fill the spaces between local shows in almost every country: Together, the U.S. networks earn about $4 billion from exporting television shows, more than the TV export revenues of all other countries combined.....The influence carries far beyond the financial. It is almost redundant to talk about an "American-style movie or TV show, as the style, phrases, and many of the values of Hollywood have been thoroughly rubbed into the grain of most of the world's cultures."
The most remarkable aspect of the article is that it deals exclusively with the successful takeover of the world by the Hollywood movie industry. Struggles of American promoters are described at great length and with admiration -- but not a single word is said about the value of any film's content, or its effect.
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Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2000 -- SCIENCE (Written by John Stackhouse)
It is difficult for a person as much in favour of science and reason as I am not to get carried away by this article, headed "The Eureka Formula." In combination with the right values, such as concern for other sentient life and responsibility for our future, science can bestow untold blessings upon humanity, not only in the field of health, but most of all -- with the help of technology -- as a liberator of yet unknown potentials of the human mind. [For more on this subject, read the review of George Bugliarello's work "The Biosoma" in the October 2000 issue of Humankind Advancing].
And yet, the overemphasis on money even here-- not only to make science possible, but also as an incentive to pursue it -- acts as a barrier. For instance, the very first sentence of the article tries to attract the reader's attention with the words "...everywhere one looks at Stanford University there is gold." (Stanford University is chosen as the centre of American science and research.) Then the author continues, "The faculty parking lots are filled with luxury cars..." All before a single world about the nature of science and exploration is mentioned. Is science of value because it makes money? The report certainly seems to be geared to persons who think so.
In spite of this drawback, there is much to fuel the hope for our future. Generous donations to development and research are made by both government and the private sector -- $229 billion alone last year (1999), more than in Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Canada, Italy and Russia combined. What is more important is that philanthropists spend money mainly for projects that try to help people. Historically, America concentrated 100 and 150 years ago on practical and marketable inventions, during and after the war years on military research and projects such as reaching the moon, and now -- with $900 million for Research and Development every 24 hours -- mainly on basic research in health care.
It is conceded that the fear of science's concentration on destructive innovations, expressed by the public and some scientists after the last World War, was a factor in turning science toward microchips and DNA research. Computers are essential because no human brain can retain and manipulate the vast and highly diverse knowledge, on the interaction of which the new Eureka experiences depend. -- Most importantly, cross-fertilization of knowledge from different fields is recognized as being immensely fruitful. One farsighted scientist, Dr. Shapiro, devised a new project "which will merge the essential forces of government, philanthropy, industry and academe into a ‘new science'." It is her aim "to bring together the scientific knowledge gained in the past two decades, especially in microbiology and electronics in the hope that extraordinary breakthroughs will result." Her new creation, the Clark Center, will open in 2003 and will provide opportunity for 400 scientists and technicians to work together in so called "scientific ‘dream teams'."
If only the craving for money would not be such an overwhelming factor. Even University research is now being patented. Some scientists are millionaires. And yet, good scientists are scarce because of "weak elementary schooling in sciences and math." Other countries are ahead of the USA in that respect. In spite of this drawback, the States dominate by far.
Delegations from foreign countries, such as China, who come to study the roots of American success in science, are told that it is necessary to ‘give scientists the freedom to explore, and to profit from their work'." -- I believe, as far as I know scientists -- and I have much wonderful first-hand knowledge of them -- that the first reason is far more important than the second one.
Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 -- BUSINESS (Written by Barrie McKenna)
Wal-Mart has been chosen to demonstrate the American business spirit and its skill to conquer the world. An inconspicuous five and dime store in rural Arkansas expanded into a chain of 4,100 Wal- Mart stores worldwide. How did its founder, Sam Walton, achieve that feat? He understood what would appeal to simple people, and he understood how to cut costs with computers, conveyer belts, and sophisticated machinery. Most of all, he understood that a lowering of prices attracts crowds out of all proportion to the pennies saved. "The company motto -- "Every Day Low Price" -- isn't so much a pledge to shoppers as it is a reminder to rivals and suppliers that it is not going to cede an inch in the retail war." That war is ruthless. In Germany, Wal-Mart has been accused of pricing below cost, and in its small home town, most stores in the market square are empty and boarded up.
However, the population does not suffer as a result. In the contrary, everyone is either employed by Wal-Mart or by one of its spin-offs: hotels and restaurants to accommodate visitors and shoppers from other places. Even an airport is now being built in the remote rural setting of its origin and headquarters. "Wal-Mart executives love to talk about their low prices and their stores' ubiquitous, grinning ‘greeters.' [All employees are exhorted to be not only polite, but definitely cheerful.] But a near-messianic drive to root out costs and inefficiencies at every turn is equally responsible for the discount giant's success." As an example it is reported that the distribution centre in Arkansas, which covers "the equivalent of 24 football fields, can handle 15,000 boxes an hour with the help of nearly 20 kilometres of conveyer belts strung...through the four-storey warehouse."
In spite of his aggressive, zealous, and cost-cutting methods, which has "destroyed communities' according to critics, the founder of the chain preferred a "folksy and humble corporate culture," which is being maintained, even eight years after his death. Workers are called "associates," not employees. -- It is truly unbelievable, how much a combination of psychology and ruthless pursuit of a goal can accomplish.
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Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 -- MILITARY (Written by Miro Cernetig)
As symbol of American military might, the air plane carrier USS Kitty Hawk is described, the centrepiece of the Seventh Fleet, which is controlling the Pacific around Japan. The carrier itself accommodates 75 fighter jets and helicopters, maintained and kept ready for action at any moment, by a crew of 5,300 people (men and women). The entire Seventh Fleet "comprising the Kitty Hawk, 50 to 60 other ships, and a half-dozen attack submarines, represents the most powerful naval force ever assembled in any empire....[It] has access to more than 400 fighter jets, helicopters, bombers and supply aircraft, " and it is vastly superior to the military power of any other nation, even that of all Asian nations -- "from China to Japan, India to Taiwan -- combined." 130 kilometres of the world's surface are policed by it. -- The Kitty Hawk alone, wherever it is, enables the United States to dominate thousands of square kilometres of air space above it. During combat, a fighter jet can be launched every 30 seconds.
And why is all this enormous military power needed? To keep the peace, of course, is the official answer; to prevent other nations from fighting each other, and to save lives! Prayers are part of the ships official routine, just as much as drills to drop bombs at short notice, and the crew is united in the belief that even if fighting becomes necessary, it would be for the best of causes: for justice and freedom on earth. -- Records of the United States Congress, however, present a different, and -- as the author of the article believes -- more clear-eyed picture. "The massive firepower on the high seas is needed to protect the global trading system, upon which the future of the United States relies....A key part of the global economy's growth has been the proliferation of multinational corporations, many U.S.-owned or partnered.... In short, the navy has been and continues to be a sine qua non, a necessary precondition of global economic prosperity and U.S. national security."
In other words, the American culture, the American business ventures, the American values would not be far as dominant on earth, were it not for the vast American military superiority, against which all protests and counter-measures are futile.
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Reviewer's comment:
But there is one enemy the most successful concentration of money and military power cannot conquer, an enemy that threatens not from the outside but from within. Even when all nations on earth lie on their knees before the United States and admit that they are powerless, that enemy is active -- in fact it is most active after power has been consolidated. It lives and prospers at the core of the values which are exported: the adoration of money above all else.
I remember reports about a "Billionaires Boy's Club" several years ago, which taught its members to hate their parents, but to love their money -- and which finally degenerated into committing murders -- not for any good cause or any cause at all, but simply to provide excitement for those who had everything.
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Postscript: The last article in the Globe and Mail contains a postscript:
"Tomorrow [that would be Saturday, October 21, 2000] PLANET AMERICA BONUS. In a postscript to the series, Ottawa columnist Jeffrey Simpson talks to Canadians seduced by Uncle Sam's siren call." -- I have not yet seen this postscript, but will try to obtain it and report about it in the next issue.
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FOCUS ON RESPONSIBILITY
The following is a reprint, with permission of its author, WAYNE KINES from the World Media Institute, of a biographical sketch and nomination speech exemplifying the countercurrent to the striving for supremacy. An accompanying letter referred to Christian de Laet's "unique character and lifetime commitment to universal caring for people, flora, fauna and the sustainability of Creation" as reason to nominate him for the World Bank's `Global Environment Achievement Award,'
CHRISTIAN DE LAET
Leadership for the Global Environment
From the chaos of wartime youth in Belgium, Christian de Laet set out on a life journey searching for truth about the world and sharing with all he met along the way.
His enthusiastic, diligent devotion to a greater understanding of the global environment, from grassroots to the stratosphere, is now expressed in vigorous advocacy of individual and social change, so that personal behavior and corporate conduct address the reality of the global human condition. "It is urgent for the sustainability of civilization" de Laet says.
A Man For All Seasons
As teacher, scholar, and scientist, counsellor, consultant and communicator, he is in continuous motion, always observing, discovering and exchanging insights , ideas and information of growing significance for the strengthening and sustaining of human community.
His journey has taken him to the furthest corners of the earth, into classrooms and boardrooms, farms and villages, cities and countries on every continent.
"We must all be ready to attempt the bridge between science and personal responsibility," he told the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome in an April 2000 address. That ambitious concept is the core of his lifetime of achievement in fostering sound ecological practices world-wide.
"There are growing numbers of people engaged in this endeavor," he added hopefully. "Prospects for survival which now confront all humanity as we emerge into a single community ultimately depend upon each individual's conduct. That requires a common will of care and concern for each other and for the environment that sustains us."
Christian de Laet was born in Brussels 12 years before the start of the second World War. He spoke French and Flemish but soon had to become German-speaking. A few years later he became acquainted with army English. During the course of his life, he has also learned Italian, Spanish, and Russian, as well as, eventually, Hindi.
He was accepted at Advanced Level in mathematics at the Ecoles Speciales of the University of Louvain, in 1944, and in engineering at the Polytechnical School of the University of Brussels when it re-opened in 1945.
Arrival in Canada
When he first came to Canada in early 1949, de Laet combined part-time study with executive training at ALCAN, the aluminium company. His timely switch to applied mathematics and computer systems, serving as an Operation Research Officer with Sir Robert Watson-Watt and Partners, led to his becoming a technical and management consultant to private and public-sector organizations.
Early Environmental Pioneer
In 1964, Christian de Laet was elected secretary-general of the Canadian Council of Resources and Environment Ministers (CCREM). He spent nine years traversing the vastness of Canada's provinces and territories, building informed consensus within that forum designed to make joint policy more possible in a federal state. The national conference on `Pollution and Our Environment' permitted him to test the importance of the qualitative, rather than the quantitative, aspects of resources use, as bench-marked by the founding `Resources for Tomorrow Conference' of 1962.
His work with CCREM raised Canadian awareness of environmental concerns, and empowered wider citizen involvement, including the First Nations, in local, national, and global affairs. The 1968 `Water Seminar' was, in many ways, a determinant of the way water policies could be structured in the future, in terms of resources with multi-layered responsibility.
Advising UN Agencies
In the years following the UN Stockholm Conference of 1972, when he was invited to monitor and advise on the natural resources sector (a rare experience in itself in inter-governmental conflict management), Christian de Laet became a consultant to INGOs, as well as IGOs, and specialized UN agencies such as WHO, UNESCO, UNU, UNEP and UN/ESCAP.
Over the years, he participated in many of the key UN conferences and carried out travels and assignments in all the major five continents, in places such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Papua, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, the Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, Zaire.
One of Christian de Laet's key objectives during this period was to correlate development, or mal- development, with the substantial list of parameters that are culture and site-specific. He traced many environmental concerns to values, attitudes, and to levels of technical maturity which oscillate between progress and retrogress. Being in India gave de Laet the opportunity to discover some deep cultural roots; this gave him an understanding of the many ways environmental challenges could be met through re-interpreting traditional knowledge systems and folk cultures.
Commonwealth Science Council
In 1977, de Laet was invited by Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal to become his science advisor, a position which extended to being secretary of the Commonwealth Science Council, head of the Commonwealth Science Division of the Secretariat, and adviser to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation. Beyond the Commonwealth network of nearly 50 countries, he also represented the Secretary-General abroad and developed working contacts with other IGOs, such as the Francophone counterpart, l'Agence de cooperation culturelle et technique (ACCT).
In those years, he travelled the highways and byways of the world and found other ways to correlate concerns common to all human cultures - such as architecture, proverbs, fables, songs, dancing and mime. The Commonwealth Secretariat itself was a world in microcosm which permitted him to encompass a wide variety of assignments "always," said Ramphal, "characterized by originality, wit and creativity. Christian de Laet," continued the Secretary General, "successfully oriented the work of the Commonwealth Science Council toward the more practical tasks of development."
After traversing the world and advising the Commonwealth for over five years, de Laet landed first in Sri Lanka then in India where he contributed to the pioneering work of Ashok Khosla in setting up the Society for Development Alternatives.
He was then invited, in 1983, to carry out a research program on the "rapid rural modernization of the Canadian prairies over the previous 100 years" as Senior Research Associate in the Canadian Plains Research Center thanks, in part, to an IDRC Governing Board grant. Located at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, and serving also as adjunct professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, he was able to extend the reach of the university throughout the vast Canadian prairies, while still communicating his stimulating catalytic force to the world beyond.
Development Alternatives
He kept close contact beyond the Himalayas to collaborate with Ashok Khosla in the growth of the Society for Development Alternatives, now one of the premier private development agencies in the world. The experience gained there, truly interdisciplinary and transcultural, provided the key ferment to pair-up environment and development issues in the structuring of avant-garde concepts on development sustainability in practice.
For Christian de Laet, the Indian experience was critical to his achieving a better and more profound understanding of the role of the individual `self' in a globalized world.
At the same time he was pursuing his association with Tony Judge in Brussels at UIA, the Union of International Associations, where he learned first-hand the potential of organizing world knowledge in practical forms. In Christian's view, the breakthroughs achieved in the preparation of the many editions of UIA's Encyclopedia rank as an all-time high `window' to manage the 21st Century successfully. He feels that the UIA relationship thus developed was a keystone in his own apprenticeship in relating the parts and the whole.
From his Saskatchewan base, Christian de Laet was also able to follow earlier work in the restructuring of the Athol Murray College of Notre-Dame and to assist in the setting up of the Saskatchewan Science Center.
Overseas, he also continued to serve on the Expert Panel on Environmental Health of WHO and on the World Conservation Union's Commission on Environmental Strategies and Planning. He remains a member of the International Council of Developmental Law in Bonn and has served the University of Montreal Faculty of Environmental Planning and as Principal for Environmental Systems Design with the Gamma Institute of Montreal.
He has been an advisor to CESO International Services in Sri Lanka and India and remains a CESO volunteer. To balance his multicultural inklings, he acts as the Canadian anchor of the Paris-based INGO "Prospective 2100," with its own broad-sweeping program on how to weather the challenges of the 21st Century.
From Science to Conscience
At the crossroads of his quarter century of environmentalism, Christian de Laet was honoured, in 1990, on Parliament Hill on Canada's National Day, named as the Canadian Environment Achiever for both his national and international work. De Laet is a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London, a past-president of the Canadian Association for Futures Studies , a Senior Fellow of the Club of Athens and, more important in his view, he is a persistent mentor of graduate students and a friend of First Nations in both Canada and Australia.
In his speech to the Canadian Association of the Club of Rome, de Laet declared, "It is time to move from science to conscience," adding, "None of us has a private 1-800 line to truth and righteousness." And then he said, "We can't afford to go on being counter-productive, nor even counter-intuitive for any sustainable length of time."
De Laet's conviction that the real work of saving the planet must be the responsibility of each of the world's citizens, has led him to do battle on the front lines of humanity, in the civic trenches of community, hand-to-hand with small groups of people in whatever culture or country he might be found on any given day. While others he advises are busy in boardrooms planning policies and strategic war on a grand scale, de Laet moves from front to front, sharing concerns and finding solutions.
Global Citizen
He is the ultimate `Global Citizen', taking responsibility for the knowledge which he continues to accumulate by constant devotion and concern, seeking truth within himself and in the personal lives and environmental context of all those he encounters and whom he invariably challenges to enjoy the beauty and blessings of this life and to share them with future generations.
One might consider granting the Global Environment Leadership Award for consistent effort in a single cause, or one might take a longer, broader view and honour a lifetime devoted to a diversity of efforts at preserving global sustainability.
Christian de Laet is a mover of many causes, a catalyst among colleagues, a leader whose over- arching vision of potential solutions to environmental problems enlists others to the cause and fires them with optimism and determination.
In his adopted Canada, or in any and all of the world's nations or commons, Christian de Laet exemplifies Leadership for the Global Environment.
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Wayne Kines letter also contained the information that the idea to nominate Christian de Laet for the award was first suggested by the Team leader in External Relations at the World Bank's `Global Environment Facility', Hutton G. Archer (a Canadian), who would welcome our letter of support for this nomination. Archer can be reached by E-mail: or fax: 202-522-3240. Wayne Kines' mailing address is: World Media Institute, R.R.3, Prescott, ON, Canada, KOE 1TO.
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IDEAS AND DREAMS
My Dream 3000
by Dr. Robert Muller
(Written for the last summer solstice of the second millennium) 21 June 1999
I dream that we humans,
the most advanced miracle
of life in the universe,
will lift our sights, hopes and dreams to the year 3000
and make the third millennium
a tremendous, unbelievable cosmic success.
I dream that all governments will join together
to manage this beautiful Earth and its precious humanity
in peace, justice and happiness,
That all religions will believe
In a global spirituality,
That all people will become
A caring family,
That all scientists will join
in a united, ethical science,
That all corporations will unite,
in a global cooperative
To preserve nature and all humanity.
I believe that once and for ever,
we will eliminate all wars, violence and armaments
From this miraculous planet.
I dream that the incredible and
growing distance between rich and poor,
between and inside nations
will be eliminated as a blemish
to the miracle of life.
I dream that we will stop the destruction
of our miraculous, so richly endowed planetary home.
I dream that we will eliminate all lies, corruption
and immoral advertisements for purely
monetary purposes.
I dream that we will all live
simple, frugal lives in order
not to tax unduly the precious
resources of our planet.
I dream that each decade and centennial
will be celebrated as a great
world wide event to take stock of our successes.
I dream that we will succeed in making our planet
the ultimate success of God,
or the mysterious forces of a
universe of which each of us
is a miraculous, cosmic unit.
Dear brothers and sisters,
dear children, youth, adults and elderly,
dear spirits of all the departed
let us join forces to fulfill this
wonderful miracle intended and expected by God.
Let us prepare the year 3000
as the most extraordinary celebration
of our grandiose, mysterious journey
in the star studded heavens.
Let us make this third millennium
a Jubillenium, a millennium
Of peace, love, joy, happiness and beauty.
Dr. Robert Muller
Chancellor Emeritus, University for Peace
Former UN Assistant Secretary General
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REFLECTIONS
A Dream Come True. It was a very sad occasion, the death of my dear husband, that led me to realize that, at least in some parts of the world, the dream that seems utterly utopical and impossible, the dream that all people will become one caring family, has actually been realized.
The winter was just beginning, and I was suddenly confronted with all kinds of new tasks and decisions for which my husband had always cared, and about which I knew nothing. One of them was the removal of the snowbanks which would block the long exit way from our house to the road. We have a snowblower I had no idea how to operate; besides, it was far to heavy for me to handle. I would have to pay someone to do it, but did not know how much and whether I had that money at hand. -- When I asked one of my neighbours for his suggestions, he immediately offered to do it for free. "That would just be a neighbourly thing to do," he said, when I hesitated to accept his offer. I had been on friendly terms with all my neighbours, but preferred a life of solitude, without intimacy and friendly chatter, on our isolated point jutting out into the ocean and thus was unprepared for, and astonished about their generosity. -- But the neighbour I had asked never had a chance to prove his helpfulness.
Together with the first few inches of snow, another neighbour further down the main road appeared with her car and drove back and forth to make a pathway for me to get to my mail box. Not only that, from my window I saw her jumping out of the car with a snow shovel and clearing a path to my front door -- all this on her way to go shopping in town and with her 6-year old boy in the car.
The day proceeded, and the snow came down thick an heavy. But with it came a snow plow, fastened to the car of someone living still farther away and completely unknown to me. He cleared my driveway, turned, and disappeared -- without waiting for compensation or even a word of thanks. I was utterly astonished. Only later I heard from my children that people in the country do such things for one another.
I had read about New-Age-Community groups for many years -- how they started with high ideals, and how they invariably disintegrated after some time. Such ideals, I had concluded, are impossible in reality. -- And now, here, I saw them realized! --Later, I had many more, even better experiences of neighbourly helpfulness, and I am aware of the danger of taking them for granted. But I will never forget the deep impression these first fully unexpected instances had made.
"There is hope for our world!" I thought -- but then I realized that it was a world of the past, a world that is fast disappearing. Speed-intoxicated futurists call these wonderful people disparagingly "turtles," implying that there will be no room for them in the fast-track world of the future. -- Yes, scientific progress and ingenious inventions have helped and are helping to eliminate much of human suffering and misery, and yet -- without the "turtles" the very heart of humanity would vanish.
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Acknowledgments: I wish to thank Wayne Kines for permitting me to publish his nomination speech for Christiande Laet, M. Thomas for his permission to quote from his letter to me, and Desmond Berghofer and Geraldine Schwartz for their blanket permission to quote from The Visioneer, and Dr. Robert Muller for his blanket permission to publish from his work...
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HUMANKIND ON THE "ROAD TO REASON"
Review
The Road to Reason is the title of Pat Duffy Hutcheon's newest book, a compilation of her essay series on the evolution of humanist thought, originally published in a succession of Humanist in Canada articles. The book (a paperback) is available from its publisher, Canadian Humanist Publications, PO Box 3769 Stn C, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1Y 4J8 at a price of $17.95 (+$2.- postage) for Canada and $14.00 (+$2.- postage) for USA. It can also be ordered by phone (613) 225-7216 or e-mail jepiercy@cyberus.ca
The Road to Reason rejects both, cold materialism as well as utopian dreams. It is solidly anchored in the truth of science, and yet carries the most precious jewels of ancient wisdom. In fact, these jewels, which include the need to care for one another, are made indestructable through their combination with reality-orientation. -- But these thoughts are better expressed by the author herself -- who received the Year 2000 ‘Humanist of the Year Award' from the Humanist Association in Canada, and the ‘Humanist Distinguished Service Award' of the American Humanist Association in 2001.
"If this book contributes to a sounder understanding of humanism on the part of its current adherents, as well as for those who are dissatisfied with transcendental world views and on the lookout for something better, it will have achieved its objective. The major initial step on the road to that understanding will be the recognition of the one great idea shared by all the founders of what we now call modern humanism.
"What is this one great idea and what the source of its power to survive? Our journey points to the conclusion that it is nothing less than a defining premise about existence, and the place of humankind within it. This premise concerns the commonality and continuity among all existing organic and inrganic forms. It asserts that humans are part of the process of the universe, no less natural than any other part. It requires no presumed injection of an unknowable ‘spirit' component at any point in the process of our emergence; it offers no mysterious access to a consciousness beyond that created by our joint, cumulative experience of nature. It implies instead that human actions and relationships are as subject to causation as are those of any other existing entities. It is the philosophical premise of evolutionary naturalism." (Pp180/181)
The Road to Reason is the safest road Humankind can take into the future. After the heart of humanity has been sacrificed to the money-God, after dreams have evaporated, the few travelers on the road to reason will still remain human.
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REFERENCES
Alternatives for Simple Living -- Media release, Winter 2001, p.1. (Quoted without name of author.) Contact Gerald Iverson, 5312 Morningside Avenue, PO Box 2787, Sioux City, IA 51106.
Berghofer, D. -- Graduation Address. The Visioneer, Dec.1999, pp.2-3.
Cohen, A. -- Planet America. Globe and Mail, Oct.14, 2000.
De Laet, C. -- see Kines, W.
Hutcheon, P. Duffy -- The Road to Reason. Ottawa: Canadian Humanist Publications. 2001.
Kines, W. -- Speech to nominate Christian de Laet for the World Bank's `Global Environment Achievement Award.' Contact: World Media Institute, R.R.3, Prescott, ON, Canada, KOE 1TO.
Muller, R. -- My Dream 3000. Contact: Robert Muller, 7456 Evergreen Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93117, USA. -- E-mail: (to Barbara Gaughen-Muller) barbara@rain.org
Schwartz, G. -- Journeys of Second Adulthood: Rebuilding the Global Commons -- Earth Citizens Alert. The Visioneer, Dec. 1999, pp. 4-6.
Sperry, R.W. -- Science and Moral Priority. New York: Columbia University Press. 1983. (P.2)
Thomas, M. -- Letter from India of March 7, 2001.