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Toda.eNewsletter #13



Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research
Toda.eNewsletter # 13
April 7, 2011




Dear Friends of the Toda Institute and Members of TIAC,

We want to assure you that our Tokyo staff members are all doing well and that we are moving forward despite the catastrophic events that have rocked the world recently. We want to extend our heartfelt condolences to all those who have experienced a loss at this time. Our thoughts are with the people throughout the world who are trying to cope with natural disasters and human-made turmoil and catastrophes.

Focusing on Japan, the world is impressed by the dignified and humane behavior of the people despite their tremendous hardship. Earthquakes and tsunamis cannot be controlled, but the nuclear disaster affecting Japan is entirely human-made, and there is a lot we can do about that. The Toda Institute has been in favor of nuclear abolition since its founding in 1996, but recent events have highlighted the need to reflect seriously on the safety of using nuclear power for civilian use. The spread of nuclear contamination from Fukushima, a threat to the environment and to human health in Japan and throughout the world, has allowed people to become more conscious of the real dangers of nuclear power.

In light of all of these events, we want to share with you our recent conferences which, now more than ever, clearly show the importance of our mission for the dialogue of civilizations. One essential lesson we have learned from the recent events is the necessity and urgency of raising global awareness concerning issues that affect us all. This was precisely the theme of the conference we held in February 2011.

RECENT CONFERENCES

The Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research and the Rabita Mohammadia des Oulémas (Muhammadan League of Scholars) co-organized an international conference in Rabat, Morocco, on February 4 and 5, 2011. The theme was: Global Visioning for a Common Future: Hopes, Challenges and Solutions. The founder of the Toda Institute in his 2009 Peace Proposal recommended “the creation of an office of global visioning within the UN secretariat in order to enable the international body to project and anticipate future trends and developments and focus its energies on these”. The goal of “global visioning” (which we have translated into French as “Dialogues planétaires”) is to be able to foresee problems and to anticipate the challenges humanity will face.

The founder of the Toda Institute in his 2009 Peace Proposal recommended “the creation of an office of global visioning within the UN secretariat in order to enable the international body to project and anticipate future trends and developments and focus its energies on these”. The goal of “global visioning” (which we have translated into French as “Dialogues planétaires”) is to be able to foresee problems and to anticipate the challenges humanity will face.

Speakers from around the world presented ideas and proposals to enhance global visioning, they were asked to conjure up a compelling vision for a harmonious planetary future, to expose the impediments and obstacles that seem to make this vision impossible to realize, and to propose concrete and feasible steps towards the fulfillment of their vision. Participants and presenters explored the themes of Searching for Common Ground, Dialogue of Religions, The Power of Literature and the Arts, Education and Development, and Civil Society and Nonviolence.

The conference showed that it is possible for people and organizations inspired by various ideologies and cultures to find common ground and to agree on global solutions through dialogue. Consensus was reached concerning the fact that all human activities should have as the central and clear goal the enhancing of people’s happiness and their flourishing. We reaffirmed how important it is to realize that whenever something is put before human beings and is given priority, i.e.: profit, power, leverage or other selfish pursuits, human beings always suffer and often in catastrophic ways.

Education, development, the arts, politics, religions, finance, industry, technology, and all other endeavors should contribute to the well-being of all human beings. This is the idea we want to keep at the center of our activities for global visioning. Both organizations have expressed the desire to renew the experience and to hold more conferences for further exploration on this theme and a publication is in progress. For photos of this event and a list of the participants, go here: http://www.toda.org/conferences/conferences.html.

To conclude this eNewsletter, I would like to share some of our future plans.

FUTURE CONFERENCES

UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS

On behalf of the Toda.eNewletter team, I would like to offer our deepest gratitude for your support in these times of tremendous hardship. We will work for the enhancement of prosperity and peace through dialogue even harder from now on.

Dr. Olivier Urbain
Director
Toda Institute