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March 1st, 2009
The Second World Peace Congress was successfully concluded this weekend at the Fireflies Ashram, Bangalore India. More details will be available soon. Below we post the Inaugural, Keynote and Plenary addresses delivered at the Congress.
1. Inaugural Address by Dr. Sushil Kumar
Wing Commander Dr. Sushil Kumar is a retired military officer having served over 20 years in the Indian Air Force in various capacities. Since 1997 Dr Kumar has been Director of the Indian Council of Historical Research, a leading Indian organization that promotes research in history by funding, supporting and promoting the work of historians. Dr Kumar has published articles in various academic journals, written opinion pieces for major Indian newspapers and is also author of Surrender in Japan.
2. Keynote Address by Prof. Radhakrishnan
Dr. Radhakrishnan has for many years been intimately involved in the movement to spread the message of nonviolence abroad and also to creatively adapt the teachings of Gandhi to address contemporary sociopolitical, educational, economic and cultural problems. Dr. Radhakrishnan has been a tireless advocate on behalf of rural uplift in his native India through his involvement with the Gandhigram Rural University, and has also helped to disseminate Gandhian ideals for peace and international understanding as a member of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti society. Recognized for his tireless dedication for promoting non-violence, peace and goodwill, the Indian Government conferred Dr Radhakrishnan with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award 2007.
3. Plenary Address by Prof. Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Rajani Kannepalli Kanth is a Professor of Political Economy and Social Anthropology. His current interests are in Globalisation, Ecology, Women’s Issues, Peace Studies and Philosophy. He has served Major Universities across the globe and has been an Advisor to the United Nations. He is also involved in Film, Art, Literature and Media. His newest book is titled Against Eurocentris, NY: Palgrave, Macmillan, 2005. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Prof. Kanth is currently a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Click here to download a PDF of the Congress Program.
December 25, 2008
Dear All:
Despite the travails of uncertain finances, terror attacks, and a world gone off kilter, we shall persevere, and hold the Congress.
But I/we shall need your help, your co-operation, your participation, and the gift of your energies, to make it an Event worth staging.
Let us do it not for us, the few: but for the many, the multitude who grieve/pine for a safer, better, warmer, kinder world. Do it for your friends, your children, your loved ones, for your own personal docket of values.
These Congresses must/will continue until every nation, one day, formally, renounces war as an instrument of public policy.
Let us also, at the more personal/individual level, reject violence, be that of the victim or the vanquisher, as always unacceptable.
To that dawn to come, I commit this snatch of verse, below.
Warm wishes,
Rajani
Professor Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Trustee, Congress 2008 and Fellow, Harvard University
Threnody
A Bonfire of Inanities,
The Hour is Looming Right:
Farewell to Tawdry Amities,
Dissolute , and Trite:
The Pendulum is Swinging,
the Night is paused to Wake:
the Mantic Knells are Ringing,
the Storm is on the Lake -
A Vatic Day is Dawning,
Tumult attends us All:
Beneath the Starry Awning,
Empires bid fair to Fall -
Shorn of base Amenities,
Dystopias take to Fright:
We Rise to greet the Lenities,
We Hail the Healing Light!
[rajani.kanth,copyright,October 15,2008]
The Congress [2008/09-India] Steering Committee:
Kho Tung-yi [Singapore]: Presiding Chair
Siddhartha [India]: India Co-Chair
Satyanarayana Sangita [India] & Morgan Lloyd [USA]: Rapporteur
Amit Basole [India] & Kho.Tung-yi [Singapore]: USA Co-Chairs
Mahan Vir Tulli [India]: Advisor
Tracy Lee [Australia]: Consultant
Congress 2008/09 Trustee
Rajani Kanth [USA]
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Congress 2008/09 Announcement
June 18, 2008
Dear All:
Owing to a series of financial debacles of an extreme and unexpected nature , I
regret to inform you that we are now deferring Congress 08 to a combination
Congress 2008/09 ,to be held either in September 2008, or in February 2009, but
in Bangalore, India.
The choice between the two dates indicated above is up to our Indian
Co-Organisers led by the highly able and dedicated Siddhartha Fireflies [who
attended Congress2007) : and I will communicate that , shortly.
My own preference might be to go for Feb, 09, but it is not my place to decide
that.
It is perhaps ironical that in a Nation that can spend upwards of $300 million a
day, in the Iraq war , and in a State where folks paid $70K to shake George
Bush’s hand, recently, we were unable to raise the 50K needed to run the
Congress.
But, no matter: we will do it on an even more dramatic scale in India, for far
less than the costs here in Utah.
The Agenda remains unchanged: to develop Grassroots Projects worldwide to
advance Peace under the auspices of the Resolutions arrived at , in Congress
2007.
Please join us in this rescheduled Event: I am renewing ALL our Invitations to
each of you, by means of this letter.
Most of all, please work , if you would, toward the Congress 2007 goal of
assisting every Government on earth to renounce War as an Instrument of State
Policy, forever.
Now that would be , in my opinion, a real, and meaningful, Declaration of Human
Rights.
I consider each one of Our Invitees, past and present, to be a formidable force
in this regard, and I apologise to you individually, at failing in my own
effort, and that of my colleagues, to raise the requisite resources this
summer.
However the India Congress is on, much like the one in Australia [2010] to
follow, to be hosted by the inimitably gracious Maori Queen, Mere.
So, the best, my friends, is yet to be.
With warmest good wishes,
Professor Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Trustee, Congress 2008 and Fellow, Harvard University
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Original Congress 2008 Announcement
October 05, 2007
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."
—Chapter 22, E.M.Forster, Howard’s End
Dear All:
I am pleased to announce that preparations are now commenced for Congress2008, following upon our success this past summer with Congress2007. The caption of the Congress, henceforth to be called World Peace Congress 2008, is the old Forster slogan of 'Only Connect', taken from Howard's End. The Congress will be held in Salt Lake City again, the days of August 1-3, 2008.
This time, Panels will be asked to develop Grassroots Projects, at the local level, but scattered globally, that will help implement the bold Resolutions arrived at in Congress2007.
It's sort of putting your money where your mouth is. We fully expect this Congress to be, thereby, even more exciting than the previous one: but, I would hope, just as effective in achieving its Objectives.
In the weeks to come, I will be notifying you of the evolving modus operandi. As before, All Panelists and Participants will be chosen, and notified, by Invitation. Kathy Hawkins will continue to Chair the Congress, as before, but there will be some changes in the Steering Committee. There will also be an Ad Hoc Consultative Board as well.
With warm good wishes,
Cordially,
Professor Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Trustee
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