Project
Harmonious Era Calendar:
The Quality of Social Existence and Future of Children
Approved by the Board, January 2006
Address To Children, Youth and Future Generations By Leo Semashko, together with international contributors:Ada Aharoni, Talgat Akbashev, Maria Cristina Azcona, Reimon Bachika, Harold Becker, Kerry Bowden, Renato Corsetti, Guy Crequie, Martha Ross DeWitt, Nina Goncharova, Dimitry Ivashintsov, Takis Ioannides, Abram Jusfin, Vladimir Kavtorin, Evelin Lindner, Rose Lord, John McConnell, Bernard Phillips, Hilarie Roseman, Maitreyee Bardhan Roy, Subir Bardhan Roy, Bernard Scott, Igor Shadkhan, Rudolf Siebert, Tatiana Tselutina and Claude Veziau In twelve languages:English, Esperanto, Russian, Spanish, French, Greek, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Arabian and Hebrew ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Global Harmony Day: June 21st* * This date is the day of a solstice “Global Harmony Day” represents a key date in the Harmonious Era Calendar. The uniting of humankind in its move toward harmonious peace and order now enters this Era. A new Calendar and a new human measure are required. Harmony expresses our universal nature, and is a global measure of our humanity in an Information Society ----------------------------------------------- The author of the project idea, and editor of the Address to Children, Youth and Future Generations is Dr Leo Semashko. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Address countries and authors: 1.Australia - 2 co-authors – Hilarie Roseman, Kerry Bowden 2.Argentina - 1 co-author - Maria Cristina Azcona 3.Canada - 1 co-authors - Claude Veziau 4.England - 1 co-author – Bernard Scott 5.France - 1 co-author - Guy Crequie 6.Greece -1 co-authors - Takis Ioannides 7.India - 2 co-authors - Maitreyee Bardhan Roy, Subir Bardhan Roy 8.Israel - 1 co-author - Ada Aharoni 9.Italy - 1 co-author - Renato Corsetti 10.Japan - 1 co-author - Reimon Bachika 11.Russia - 8 co-authors - Dimitry Ivashintsov, Vladimir Kavtorin, Leo Semashko, Tatiana Tselutina, Abram Jusfin; Nina Goncharova, Talgat Akbashev, Igor Shadkhan 12.USA - 6 co-authors - Harold W. Becker, Martha Ross DeWitt, Rose Lord, John McConnell, Bernard Phillips, Rudolf Siebert Globalcitizen - Evelin Lindner The Address translators and editors in languages: 1.English - Martha Ross DeWitt, Will Hoonaard, Claude Veziau, Rose Lord,Leo Semashko 2.Esperanto - Renato Corsetti, Viatcheslav Ivanov 3.Russian - Leo Semashko, Nina Goncharova 4.Spanish - Maria Cristina Azcona 5.French - Claude Veziau, Guy Crequie 6.Greek - Takis Ioannides 7.German - Vagid Ragimov, Olga Baikova, Thomas Swiderek 8.Portuguese - Adolph Alakula, Sergey Kuhtin 9.Japanese - Julia Bogdanova, Irena Dedushkin, Reimon Bachika 10.Chinese - Anna Chju, Cyril Kotkov 11.Arabian – Victoria Shamanova, Eugenie Fursova 12.Hebrew – Ilea Minsky, Ekaterina Shuhman Abstract This Address is a Commitment and Appeal to children, youth and future generations of the world. It presents details of the Harmonious Era Calendar Project, recommending it to new generations as a positive alternative of a future harmonious order, as we enter a new era. Its basis is harmony, as a measure of universal humanity in a Global Information Society. The Harmonious Era Calendar is born at the crossroads of many cultures of the world.These cultures are interconnected, and share a basic nucleus of values whose focus is harmony.Twenty seven scientists and activists in fields of culture and art from twelve countries created this calendar, which includes twenty seven commemorative and holiday dates.It has been published in many languages, allowing it to be a bridge for peace, understanding and dialogue among cultures and civilizations. It teaches children and youth about harmony and peace, instead of about war and enmity. This Address consists of five parts: foreword, definitions of harmony, calendar of harmony, brief statements/abstracts of its co-authors and first responses. The basic languages of the Address are four: English, Russian, Spanish and French. In these languages the Address is published in all of its parts. Another eight languages: Esperanto, Greek, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew, are also used, but only for the first three parts. The division of the Address languages into basic and additional languages is caused by the necessity to reduce its length, and also by a limitation of resources. For the same reasons, only five of the twenty statements are published in the additional languages, and complete data of the authors are published only in English and Russian. Content 1.Foreword: Harmony as a measure of universal humanity, and as the basis for a harmonious era 2.Definingsocial harmony 3.Harmonious Era Calendar 4.Pluralism: co-authors brief statements/abstracts 5.First responses 1. Foreword: Harmony as a measure of universal humanity, and as the basis for a harmonious era All of us feel and understand that the old industrial world has left us with wars and disharmony. It is on its deathbed. A new social world is being born.Universal, fairly distributed information will be at the core of creating a new quality of our social, spiritual, political, and economic lives. A Global Information Society opens up and develops an original, universal nature of human and humanity.Universal information creates universal humans, which create more universal information and the basis for a universal, harmonious social order, trends that reinforce each other. A universal social order reaffirms social harmony, which has been a latent guiding force for humankind from immemorial times in all cultures. But it becomes known and relevant only now. Already Protagoras, a philosopher of antiquity, expressed the essence of what it means to be human more than 2,500 years ago: "the human is a measure of all things, how they exist and how they do not exist." His definition pertained to the previous, disharmonious era of humanity and society, with its emphasis on the private worlds of private citizens rather than on society as a whole. The priority of private worlds and private things created a one-dimensional (Herbert Marcuse) and disharmonious human and also a one-dimensional (Herbert Marcuse) and disharmonious society, and vice versa. Private things generated disharmony among humans and within society.Such an outlook led Hobbes to see society as a "war of all against all," implicating a constant enmity of peoples, religions, cultures, civilizations and different social groups according to differences in their property, riches, profession, age, gender, etc. Private things created private humans and a disharmonious society, and vice versa. Therefore, not only did humans determine the value and measure of private things, but private things determined the value (became the measure) of humans. Our century is transitional, from private things to universal information (its embodiment is the Internet, accessible to everyone), from the private, one-dimensional human and disharmonious society to the universal, multidimensional human and harmonious society, from a disharmonious to a harmonious era. It is transforming the social order, with its increasing reliance on universal information, to create a global, harmonious society.In it, harmony becomes a measure (and priority) for a universal, multidimensional human and also for societies, religions, cultures and civilizations. Harmony is a measure of the universal, multidimensional, Information Age human. It is a measure of everything that he/she makes or that he/she does not make with the help of universal information. If private things create and require disharmony, universal information creates and requires social harmony and a universal, harmonious human, and vice versa. Universal information is a main resource and precondition for this human, and also for a global, harmonious society. With the help of universally-available information, humans will begin to learn to live in harmony within a global society. Children and youth will occupy a place of priority in this vast, transitional phase of universal learning. It is children and youth who are the emerging cornerstones of a new, Harmonious Era and Culture. Reflecting the new social requirements, our Harmonious Era Calendar brings together twenty seven commemorative dates to celebrate humanity transformed by the universal value of harmony. Our project, the Harmonious Era Calendar, is created by the collective efforts of twenty seven scientists and activists of culture and art from twelve countries of the world, as a cultural testament of the senior generation to the new generations. Our project is intended for youth, children, and present-day and future generations, in the hope of introducing and developing this calendar’s promises in their daily life. Children and youth become the fulcrum of a harmonious information society. They will need to advance this long, difficult but constructive and positive global process, which is the alternative to increasingly destructive threats of military opposition of civilizations, nuclear proliferation, terror, the gap between rich and poor, ecological pollution and others evidences and risks of humankind’s self-destruction. We hope that our joint project will attract positive contributions to this constructive process from youth and future generations. In summary, I want to express my deep gratitude to all co-authors of our Calendar and Address, without whose painstaking work and four months of challenging discussions they would not have appeared.I want to express special gratitude to Harold Becker of the Global Love Day, who pushed me to the idea of a Harmony Calendar; Ada Aharoni, who put forward the idea of a new peace culture; Rudolf Siebert, for his key idea of a Golden Rule of religion; Reimon Bachika for his ideas of universal values and symbols; John McConnell, 91 year old founder of Earth Day, Earth Trustees and "Star of Hope"; Nina Goncharova, Claude Veziau, and Talgat Akbashev for a line of the original humanitarian and ecological dates; Tatiana Tselutina, Kerry Bowden, Maitreyee Bardhan Roy and Subir Bardhan Roy for dates devoted to children. Each date is a diamond in the crown of the Harmony Calendar, holding in memory and designating the appropriateness of the day suggested by its author. I also express sincere gratitude to the translators of the Calendar: Maria Cristina Azcona for the Spanish translation, Claude Veziau for the French translation; Takis Ioannides for the Greek translation; Renato Corsetti for the Esperanto translation and all others; to its editors: Claude Veziau, Will Hoonaard, Martha Ross DeWitt, Rose Lord and others; to its artists: Hilarie Roseman, Nina Goncharova and Claude Veziau. I am very grateful also to my wife Lucy, whose love, patience and support helped me to begin and to finish this project up to the end. It became a symbol of our love. Leo Semashko: Universal Peace Ambassador; State Councillor of St. Petersburg, Ph.D., Social philosopher and sociologist; Director: Tetrasociological Institute, IFLAC Russia and International Website "A New Culture of Peace from Social Harmony and children’s Priority" www.peacefromharmony.org May 31st , 2006, St.-Petersburg, Russia 2. Defining social harmony Definitions of social harmony assume a fundamentally new socio-philosophical approach, recognizing harmony as a universal measure of a universal human/humanity, and human/humanity, possessing universal information, as a measure of universal social harmony. Harmony is of two kinds: (a) external or functional, as it applies to its role and meaning in society, and (b) internal or structural, involving social actors (social groups and classes), structure, and order of organization. Accordingly, there are two kinds of harmony definitions: functional and structural definitions of harmony, corresponding to the two kinds of harmony. Functional definitions of harmony can be briefly expressed as follows. Social Harmony involves: - a Search for coordinated, dialogic and balanced unity in diversity. It is such unity in diversitythat creates social harmony and its organizational order. This order in diversity is an order of harmonious unity, identical to harmonious peace or harmonious order; - a Harmonious order in diversity, which does not exclude internal conflicts but excludes their violent resolution, which would destroy the achievement of a peaceful unity in diversity; - the Statement of a principle "want peace? - create harmony" instead of the principle: “want peace? - prepare for war"; - an Alternative to cultures of war, which can only escalate, resulting in the self-destruction of humankind; - an Eternal, harmonious peace of different cultures, religions, peoples, and civilizations; preventing their wars, confrontations, and clashes, but retaining their distinctions andachievements in harmony and unity; - a Reorientation of the economic, political, scientific, and educational spheres from the age-old priority given to a disharmonious military order, to a new priority placed on an age-young,harmonious, peaceful order; - the Promise of global belief in, hope for and love of children, youth, and the men and women of future generations; - Turning away from social sciences that can only offer apologies for the status quo, to the discovery of a harmonious, natural order and an exploration of its natural actors (classes, groups etc.) who work together to ensure social harmony; - Resolution of increasingly global problems of humanity: ecological, energy, food & nutrition,
demographic, etc. through peaceful associations of civilizations that will direct the world’s resources toward resolving global problems instead of preparing for war; - a New quality of social existence, as a qualitatively new order of social life creates qualitative new content; - a Balanced and coordinated multipolarity of the world order into a "global village;" - a Sustainable, dynamic balance of different ethnicities of humanity on the basis of naturally occurring, harmonious and peaceful societal classes or groupings; and - the Cooperative design of an image of harmonious order to be brought about by children, youth, and adults, based on shared principles of supportiveness, dialogue and consent. The Calendar for a Harmonious Era is: - one of the major symbols of a harmonious social order of humankind during the new era of a Global Information Society; - a Disavowal of the previous two millennia of social disharmony, characterized by continuous ethnic wars, religious enmity and clashes of civilizations; - an Alternative to military celebrations and military commemorations in the New Era; - a Cultural way to build social harmony between East and West, North and South, to establish harmonious global relations and order; - a Thesaurus of general values and significant dates, uniting a culturally diverse humanity; - the Preservation of all dates of peaceful, shared meaning from earlier calendars; - the Symbol of a new culture of harmonious peace and Entering an Era of Harmony; and - the Transformation of each day of the year into peace-loving dates, not leaving time for war and enmity, but visualizing humankind capable of living in a harmonious social order. The central date uniting other dates of the Harmonious Era Calendar is the Global Harmony Day: June 21st. The functional definitions of social harmony, revealing its role and meaning in society, are more accessible and simple than its structural definitions, which introduce the structure and internal construction of the social harmonious order and its actors (groups, classes etc.). The structural definitions require a specific set of socio-philosophical theories and approaches. However, the pluralism of these theories and approaches makes the structural definitions of harmony a subject of long discussions, the beginning of which we summarize in the last two parts of our Address. 3. Harmonious Era Calendar To Children, Youth and Future Generations Entering the Era of Harmony of a Global Information Society Address with A Commitment and Appeal PREAMBLE We, twenty seven coauthors, scientists, artists, and cultural activists from twelve countries representing basic civilizations and religions of the world, having love for children and grandchildren, concern for the destiny of all children of our planet, and united by the idea of harmony as a key value of a new culture of peace: ●ADDRESS to the children and youth of the world, and present-day and future generations, first of all to the young parents and also future parents with the following; ● OFFER of a new Harmonious Era Calendar as the Calendar of a Harmonious Peace Culture, which is created together with the birth of a harmonious information society. Our Calendar project offers 27 dates of harmony, love, peace and other universal values acceptable to all cultures, religions, ethnicities and civilizations; ●COMMIT to further work for the development and practical application of this calendar for the sake of future generations. The new calendar requires a new philosophy, worldview or theory. But we do not have a common understanding of structure and actors of social harmony and the ways/means of its achievement. Almost all of us adhere to different theoretical visions, which are submitted below in brief statements or abstracts. We understand that without dialogue both among us and with younger generations, without your spiritual participation, the new calendar of peace culture and its philosophical/theoretical substantiation will not be possible. These cultural factors, and decisions affecting peace in your daily life, require your thinking, choice, co-authorship and action; ● APPEAL to you to actively promote them, to develop, to update and to supplement them with your ideas, offers and practical actions. You can express them on the dialogic page of our site http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=132 "A New Culture of Peace from Harmony and Children’s Priority." We also invite other scientists, artists and cultural activists from all countries of the world to join our COMMITMENT/APPEAL, which can become an ideological shift from the tradition of confrontation and clash to the tradition of harmony, both in the global information world and in the everyday life of the individual person. HARMONY CALENDAR Each society, of every civilization, marks specific calendar days on which to celebrate the most important events in its history. Calendars provide daily reminders of cultural values, and they help to define the daily behavior of human beings. A new peace culture and calendar, for which the rationale is: if you want peace, search for harmony. This rationale replaces the numerous calendars of the culture of war prevalent during past and contemporary civilizations, in which the rationale was: if you want peace, prepare for war (si vis pacem, para bellum). The new peace culture and calendar correspond to the new information age, which began during the middle of the 20thcentury. The new culture of harmonious peace is born of the old culture, slowly and painfully, synthesizing its achievements from different civilizations, both Western and Eastern. The idea and dream of harmony was developed in the West by Homer, Pythagorasand Plato up to Leibnitz and to our time, and in the East at the various schools of Buddhism and Confucianism. Therefore, a value of harmony has a universal foundation on which to develop a new global society, for an information age. If in earlier times harmony remained an unattainable dream, an information society opens up opportunities for its embodiment, just as the industrial society embodied dreams of mass communication and mass transportation. Harmony is the only alternative to the threat and high risk of nuclear self-destruction, on the brink of which the industrial society has placed our world. Therefore, the Information Society ought to be harmonious in its purpose, or it will not survive. In-depth views of a harmonious culture and its theoretical substantiations are submitted on the International and Multicultural Website "A New Culture of Peace from Social Harmony and Children’s Priority" (www.peacefromharmony.org ). Since February 2005, this site has united more than 140 co-authors from 27 countries representing practically all major world civilizations and religions. This site received its initial inspiration from the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace (IFLAC), Founded by its President, a world famous poet and scientist, Professor Ada Aharoni. Our site continues the IFLAC PAVE PEACE mission, but on its pages, according to its principle of harmony in diversity, has found a place for different interpretations of harmony and the ways/means of its achievement. Briefly, these distinctions are expressed as follows: Ada Aharoni is developing the research, the theory, and the practice of a new, harmonious culture of peace on the basis of Bridges of Understanding and Respect among peoples and nations, and on Gender Equality for the purpose of creating a World Beyond War; Martha Ross DeWitt is furthering a theory of power sharing and harmonization of influence, as old systems evolve into new systems; Reimon Bachika is interested in the theory of universal values and symbols, which creates religious harmonization; Hilarie Roseman is developing the theory of harmonization of hearts and their communications; Rose Lord is committed to the idea of the solidarity of mothers and overcoming the problem of hunger as the necessary preconditions of social harmony; Evelin Lindner is promoting the theory of equal dignity and overcoming humiliation as the precondition for a decent and harmonious society; Bernard Phillips is furthering a theory of the Web Approach to combining our understandings of social phenomena, and a dialogic worldview to replace a static, hierarchical worldview; Bernard Scott is developing a theory of a cybernetic nature and system of harmony; Rudolf Siebert is committed to developing a theory of association of religions on the basis of a Golden rule of religions, which is harmonious, per se; Harold Becker stands behind the idea of a Global Love Day, which is indissoluble with harmony; Kerry Bowden is developing an idea of the promise to children, for a best, harmonious, world; Renato Corsetti is furthering the idea of an international language, Esperanto, as a linguistic tool for achievement ofpeace, harmony and the brotherhood of people; Leo Semashko is committed to developing the tetrasociological theory of social harmony, taking into account the influence of social sphere classes, and placing a priority on children and youth; and so forth... Readers can explore in greater detail these ideas and theories related to a harmonious peace culture, and understand the varying approaches from the authors’ own statements/abstracts (below) and also on the appropriate pages of our site, which offers opportunities for dialogue on ways of promoting harmony and peace, to which we all consent. The different theoretical and cultural chords aspire to harmony, i.e., to association in a coordinated, dialogic and balanced unity. It is an evolving process which we have begun on our website. We invite everyone, especially children and youth, to join us. We are united by our desire to create harmony, and we call on children and youth to participate.The alternative is a focus on war, hatred, humiliation, and intolerance, which threaten one’s life and fills it with untold risk. The way of harmony is a way of opportunity and, given its authentic nature, is inevitable. It is realized as a result of our combined choices and actions.We invite you to choose a new, harmonious way instead of the traditional, military, way of settling disputes. Attaining peace is key among all global concerns of humankind, as only the peace resolution of conflicts will allow people to unite in concentrating the world’s resources on the resolution of other global problems: poverty, health, ecology, demography, energy, food, security and others. Without likeminded association and concentration it is impossible to carry out constructive decisions. Presently, the road to peace, we are convinced, can be only through harmony and not through armed conflict. We appeal to youth to rise to the challenge of creating harmony, to prevent wars and provide for true peace! In the multicultural environment and polylogic communications of our site, the calendar of a new peace culture as HARMONY of DIFFERENT CHORDS is born. Such chords include the following dates. For example: The Love Foundation (USA), created in 2004 by its founder, Harold Becker, offers an annual international celebration on May 1st of Global Love Day (www.thelovefoundation.com ); Dr Ada Aharoni, founder - President of IFLAC PAVE PEACE, offers for a new Calendar the International Day of a New Peace Culture on July 30th, the day of the creation of IFLAC in 1999. This day began the search and the research of new ways to a harmonious peace culture, constructed on the principle" You want peace - prepare for PEACE." With the help of IFLAC, Ada is developing the research, the theory, and the practice, of a revolutionary PEACE CULTURE, Literature and Poetry, on the basis of Bridges of Understanding and Respect between people and nations, and on Gender Equality with the full participation of women - working together to create a World Beyond War; Kerry Bowden, Australia, founder of the International Promise Club (www.thepromiseclub.com), has created the appropriate Actionists Calendar (http://my.calendars.net/betterworld) and offers to celebrate November 30th as the International Day ofPromise to the Children of the World; The American sociologist Dr Martha Ross DeWitt offers to include in a new calendar November 11th, as an International Armistice Day, to remind future generations of the laying down of arms that ended World War I. Shealsooffersa Reconciliation Day, together with Dr. Ada Aharoni of Israel, who suggests May 15th as significant for many Palestinians and Jews in their hope of establishing homelands, side-by-side, in peace, with compassion and understanding for the refugee status that both suffered for many years, and the hope of affording an example of nonviolent conflictresolutionintheMiddle East; Rose Lord (USA) offers January 12th to celebrate the International Day for the Eradication of Hunger and Poverty, which by adding a value of justice would ensure their elimination; Our website (www.peacefromharmony.org) co-authors have offered, in 2005, to begin a new Global movement "Making Children a Priority in the World" on June 1st . Now we offer to mark June 1st not only as an International Day for protection of children but also as children’s priority. For us, June 1stis the International Day for protection and priority of children. Establishment of a children’s priority in the world is the best protection for them, and also the best chance for their harmonious development, education, health, and peace. We also offer to celebrate June 21st - the day of a solar solstice - as a Day of Global Harmony, understanding harmony in the widest sense: both within a society and within the individual, both between peoples and between individuals, and also between human beings and nature. Also on this day we propose the establishment of June 21st as the fund raising day for a Harmonious Peace Global Foundation. Harmonious peace with the exclusion of war is the most important consequence of social harmony. Establishment of harmonious peace and the prevention of war will require enormous resources, equal to what is now absorbed by war and weapons, to achieve the elimination of poverty and harmonious education of all children.For the collection of funds, we suggest to establish an appropriate foundation, possibly in affiliation with the United Nations, with June 21st as the main day for collection.The combination of the two days gives practical support to the first (Harmony Day) and to the second (Harmony Foundation Day) - the highest cultural significance.If the resources and means that are presently spent on war and arms would be directed to the Harmonious Peace Foundation, its goals could be achieved in 20 to 40 years. ProfessorRudolfSiebert(USA),whofor 30 years has been the DirectoroftheInternationalCourse on the "The Future of Religion: From War to Peace among Civilizations,” together with Professor Reimon Bachika (Kyoto, Japan) and Dr Leo Semashko propose January 1 as a Global Golden-Rule Day of Religions in the Harmony Calendar (though another date can be considered).This day is intended as an antidote to the lex talionis that represents confrontation, retribution, violence, alienation, and disharmony among religions. Instead, this Day intends to unite all religions and believers, inspiring them to peace, love, and harmony. The Golden-Rule Day will be a general day for all believers, as the Golden Rule is recognized in all living world religions and in secular humanistic movements as an expression of harmony among all people of the planet.It will be a day of global ethos. RenatoCorsetti, President of UniversalEsperantoAssociation, and Leo Semashko offer to the Harmony Calendar theInternationalDay of Esperanto (December15th),the birthday of Dr. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto in 1887.He introduced internationalbilingualismasthebeginning of a long transition to a united international language. TheInternationalDayofEsperanto promotes auniversal internationallanguage; it is a day ofdiscontinuing linguisticdiscrimination;itisadayofjoiningyouth to the most harmonious,peacefulandbrotherlylanguageofthe world.It is a day to celebrate Linguistic Human Rights of people of the world. Leo Semashko offers to the Harmony Calendar March 5th as a Global Forgiveness Day among individuals, nations, religions and civilizations, for allinsults,humiliationsandprejudices. Dr. Evelin Lindner suggests to transform the UN Human Rights Day (10 December, the day of adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the UN in 1948) into the International Day of Equal Dignity and Rights for All and the Prevention of Humiliation. The first principle of this Declaration is as follows: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."It remains fundamental for the decent and harmonious societies of an information age. Tatiana Tselutina suggests for the calendar January 10th as a Global Communications Day of Children, among themselves and with adults, including government and parliamentarians, and with everyone who would help them to live a full-fledged and harmonious life. on this day, through all MEDIA, children will have an opportunity for open dialogue with adults and other children for the purpose of exchanging ideas, including the priority of children in society.She also suggests the Global Charity Day for children of the world on May 31st (before the International Day of protection and priority of children), in which all people, but first of all the wealthy, would have chance to openly help needy children. Talgat Akbashev initiator, Nina Goncharova and Claude Veziau - coordinators of “Planet 3000” project, started in 1996, suggest 4 dates, devoted to ecology and culture of consciousness of human beings and their deep interrelationships with all Earth elements and human capacity to support harmony and be co-creators with all of them and the Universe. And also three other dates, devoted to the World Citizens, Unity of all people and Planetary Culture. It is the following dates: 22 March – Sun Day. The Sun is the symbol of unconditional love, creating life. 10 July – Clear Water Day. Water is the symbol of pure human intents, openness and transparency, and also clearness of information, expressed in clear water. The best model of clear water is Baikal. Eight internationalCall of Baikal – Call of the Planet fora conducted from 1997 in Irkutsk, Baikalsk, Tunka Valley, Ulan-Ude, Tankhoy have been devoted to the transparent interrelationships of children and grown-ups co-creating harmony and peace. They were organized by the Irkutsk Pedagogic League, Instructive center of Social Education, Siberian center for Eurasian projects and sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Buryatia. 22 July – Mountains Day. It is the symbol of peaks of human spirit, capable of awakening inner potential and of taking real responsibility for life. Annual Call of Mountains Forum takes place in Altai since 1996. It is conducted by the Planet 3000 team and the Siberian center for Eurasian projects and sponsored by the Government of Altai Republic. 24 June - Air Day. Air is the symbol of people – wanderers, bringing new life, “winds of change”. Air is breath and the essence of life.June is the month of the winged messenger Mercury. on the 24th of June the American Indians, hold it as the day for worship to the Great WINGED WIND. 3 September – Planetary Culture Day. Planetary Culture is a new culture based on responsibility for our Planet. The Earth is a living indivisible triune unity. 3 is the unity of body, soul and spirit. 9 September – is the energy of new times and conscious life. “3 and 9 Kingdom” embodies a society of Love, Harmony and Peace. 17 October – World Citizens Day. Beginning in 1993, an international Education for world Citizens congress takes place in October. There have been 9 congresses in Moscow and the 10th congress occurred on the 17th of October 2005 in Samara. It was conducted by the International Education for Life Movement, Public University of Civil Culture, Foundation of Public Development, “World without borders,” Foundation for the development of Education, Siberian center for Eurasian projects and sponsored by the Institute for Planetary Synthesis Foundation of Culture of Peace. 19 October – Round Table Day. It is a symbol of Brotherhood between people, unity of cultures and collective harmonious cooperation. on the 19 of October 2005 an international round table - “Unity of cultures” in the framework of the 10th “Education for world citizens” congress took place. Dr Maitreyee Bardhan Roy and Dr Subir Bardhan Roy, President and member of the parental Organisation for the disabled children from Kolkata, India, suggest April 2 as the International Day of love, priority and rights for differently able children of the world. John McConnell offered for the Harmony Calendar two dates: March 21 as Earth Day, which he founded in 1970, and October 4 as Hope Day. Igor Shadkhan, a well-known Russian producer, offers for our Calendar March 14th as the Grandmothers and Grandfathers Day, as a sad and cheerful holiday expressing connection of generations. Robert and Barbara Muller (http://www.goodmorningworld.org/) could suggest a Happiness Day. Probably, other similar offers will also come forth. The offered dates together with the UN accepted International Days of world meaning: Women, Health, Knowledge, Science, Art, Environment etc. create the base for a New Calendar of the new culture of harmonious peace in the Information Age: January 1 - Golden-Rule Day of ReligionsJanuary 10 - Communications Day for childrenJanuary 12 - Day of Justice, & Eradication of Hunger & PovertyMarch 5 - Forgiveness Day, for humans, nations, religions and civilizationsMarch 14 - Grandmothers and Grandfathers DayMarch 21 - Earth DayMarch 22 – Sun DayApril 2 - Day of love, priority and rights for differently able children of the worldMay 1 - Global Love DayMay 15 - Reconciliation Day, for those weary of long-standing disputes and conflicts May 31 - Charity Day for children of the worldJune 1 - Protection & Children’s Priority Day June 21 - Global Harmony Day;June 21 - Harmonious Peace Foundation Fundraising DayJune 24 - Air DayJuly 10 - Clear Water DayJuly 22 - Mountains DayJuly 30 - A New Culture of Peace DaySeptember 3 - Planetary Culture DayOctober 4 - Hope DayOctober 17 - World Citizens DayOctober 19 - Round Table DayNovember 11 - Armistice Day, to commemorate laying down arms to end a war November 30 - International Day of the Promise to Children of the WorldDecember 10 - International Day of Equal Dignity, Equal Rights & Prevention of HumiliationDecember 15 - International Day of Esperanto and Linguistic Human Rights?- Happiness Day? + Acceptance of the UN International Days of world meaning: www.UNmeditation.org. (Maybe the words "global" and "international" make sense to remove from the calendar days titles for their simplification but it to solve youth.) We invite everyone, and especially children and youth, to join in the discussion of the Cultural Calendar of Harmonious Peace, to express their opinions, to offer new dates on the calendar of the new century and millennium. It is the calendar of harmony beginning with children, established for them and to ensure universal social harmony. The Calendar of harmony is common for the different races, ethnicities and civilizations of the world. It unites us and offers an alternative to calendars and cultures of war, which separate us. It is our commitment to transfer this calendar of harmony to future generations, in the hope that it will unite them in its development and celebration, no longer to be separated by calendars of war and enmity. We leave our ADDRESS open for signatures and members (with their additions and specifications), on the one hand, by representatives of our generation who recognize this responsibility for children, youth and future generations, and on the other hand, by children and young people who aspire to peace by means of harmony instead of war. Our Address is open, for international organizations: UN, UNESCO, UNICEF and others, and also for national governments, to which it will be directed. We hope for their support of our peace initiative, which will help them find uniting values in our Harmonious Era Calendar. May 9, 2006 Semashko, Leo: State Councillor of St. Petersburg, Ph.D., Social philosopher and sociologist, Director: Tetrasociological Institution, Website www.peacefromharmony.org and IFLAC Russia; Founder and President, St.-Petersburg Children's Foundation by name of F.M. Dostoevsky (1990-1998); Author about 150 proceedings, including 10 books, most fundamental from which is the book Tetrasociology: Responses to Challenges, 2002: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=11; E-mail:semashko4444@mail.admiral.ru Aharoni, Ada: Ph.D., Poet and Writer, IFLAC Founder and President, Professor in the field of Peace Research,www.iflac.com , www.iflac.com/ada, ada@tx.technion.ac.il; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=2and others, Haifa, Israel Akbashev, Talgat: A founder of International Education for Life Movement from 1993, an initiator of Planet 3000 project from 1996,author of Pedagogic of Evolution of Consciousness,initiator of 10 International Education for world Citizens Congresses from 1993. Initiator of “Earth is the Planet for Education” project from 1993http://worldwithoutborders.site.voila.fr , e-mail: akbashev3000@list.ru Novosibirsk, Russia
Azcona, Maria Cristina: Professor, Educational Psychologist,Bilingual Poet and Translator, azconacristina@hotmail.com, www.azcona.bravehost.com, Bilingual MCA Founder-editor & director www.bilingualmca.bravehost.com, IFLAC PAVE PEACE Argentina Director and Ambassador www.iflacenarg.bravehost.com, Peace & Harmony Honorary Member & translator http://www.peacefromharmony.org, HD&HS Global Core Team Honorary Memberhttp://www.humiliationstudies.org/, Buenos Aires, Argentina; azconacristina@hotmail.com ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=36 and others Bachika, Reimon: Professor of sociology, Bukkyo University; President, ISA (International Sociological Association) RC 07 Futures Research, Kyoto, Japan, bachika@bukkyo-u.ac.jp; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.spb.ru/?cat=en_c&key=24 and others Becker, Harold: President and Founder, The Love Foundation, USA,www.thelovefoundation.com; hwbecker@thelovefoundation.com; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=100 and others Bowden, Kerry: Founder and CEO, The Promise Club, Australia, kerrybowden@comcen.com.au ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=102 and others Corsetti, Renato: President of Universal Esperanto Association, Italy renato.corsetti@esperanto.org; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=97 and others Crequie, Guy: French poet and writer, prize winner of the European Academy of arts, Honorary doctor of the world Academy of the culture and arts, messenger of the peace of the proclamation 2000 of UNESCO, “ambassador of peace”. France, guy.crequie@wanadoo.fr ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=106 DeWitt, Martha Ross: Ph.D., Sociology, Social Theorist and Research Consultant, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, Author, BEYOND EQUILIBRIUM THEORY; Theories of Social Action and Social Change applied to a Study of Power Sharing in Transition. (2000). Lanham, New York and Oxford: University Press of America, Inc., E-mail: mrossdewitt@sbcglobal.net; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=58 and others Goncharova, Nina: Coordinator of “Planet 3000” project from 1996, member of Authors and Publicists International Association,president of the Siberian center of Eurasian projects,artist, poet, singer, scenarist. Editor of a special issue of “Planet 3000” magazine published in Irkutsk in 2005.Her poems are published in international magazine of authors and publicist association “The present Time” in 2005 in Riga, SIA “MAMUTS” and at the web sitehttp://www.worldcit.citymax.com/page/page/3163394.htm.Motto: «Life is Celebration of Creation for happiness, peace and harmony». Projects “Earth is Our Common House”, “World without Borders”http://worldwithoutborders.site.voila.fr,“Altai – Planet ”,“ Call of Baikal – Call of the Planet”, Planetary Culture“PlanÊtre: Who are We?” world tourhttp://happypeopleplanet.site.voila.fre-mail: gong3000@ngs.ruNovosibirsk, Russia Ioannides, Takis: Poet, Member of the International Society of Greek Writers and Artists, member of the ESTIA of Nea Smyrni, director-ambassador of IFLAC in Greece, member of the Bilingual MCA Writers and poets of Argentina, website director http://clubs.pathfinder.gr/LOVEandPEACE ; IOANNITA@gr.ibm.com; on our site:http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=104 and others Ivashintsov, Dimitry: Professor, Co-chairman-coordinator, International Association "Russian culture", St.-Petersburg, Russia; http://www.russkyformat.ru/; info@russkyformat.ru; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=23 Jusfin, Abram: Composer, Professor, Chief of the club "Melos", St.-Petersburg, Russia, jusfin@mail.ru ; on our site: in Russian Kavtorin, Vladimir: writer, publicist, author of six books of prose, St. Petersburg, Russia, v_kavtorin@mail.ru; on our site: in Russian Lindner, Evelin: M.D., Ph.D. (Dr. med.), Ph.D. (Dr. psychol.), Social Scientist, global citizen,FoundingManagerofHumanDignityand Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS); www.humiliationstudies.org/ ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=74 Lord, Rose: Dr, Writer, IFLAC Delegate, Global Coalition for Peace, Pittsburgh, USA, www.globalcoalitionforpeace.net/wsrp;rose@food4peace.com ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=16 and others McConnell, John: The world famous Catholic priest of USA, Founder of Earth Day and Chairman Emeritus of Earth Society Foundation; Kentucky,USA;email:TrusteeOne@aol.com ; sites: www.earthsite.org, www.wowzone.com ; on our site:http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=136 , http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=187 Phillips, Bernard: Retired Professor of Sociology, Boston University, Founder and Coordinator, Sociological Imagination Group, USA, berniephi@aol.com ; www.uab.edu/philosophy/sig; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=79 and others Roseman, Hilarie: M.A., a mother of 8 children and grandmother of 12 grandchildren, Australia, yarrayarra@net-tech.com.au ; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=77 and others Roy, Maitreyee Bardhan: Dr., President. Beautiful Mind. Parental Organisation for the disabled children. Reader in Political Science Calcutta University. Wrking on Empowerment of Women in the slum areas of the city of Kolkata. Member Indian Institute of Public Administration. Indian Sociological Institute. International sociological Association. Women Studies Centre Kolkata and West Bengal Political Science Association. India. e-mail: maitreyee25@rediffmail.com; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=116 and others Roy, Subir Bardhan: Dr. Agricultural Scientist of the Government of West Bengal. Associated with Central Potato Research India Institute and IFAD project. Specialist in the field of Potato and Rice. Member of `Beautiful Mind` and working for the cause of differently able children. India. sumabroy@vsnl.net, subirkumar11@rediffmail.com; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=116 and others Scott, Bernard: Dr, Cranfield University Royal Military College of Science, UK, Board Member, ISA Research Committee 51 (on Sociocybernetics), b.c.e.scott@cranfield.ac.uk; on our site: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=64 and others Shadkhan, Igor: known Russian producer, Chief of creative studio, St.-Petersburg, Russia; email: shadkhan@shadkhan.ru ; Siebert, Rudolf: Ph.D., Professor of Religion and Society , Western Michigan University, USA; IUC Course Director, Director of the WMU Center for Humanistic Future Studies, RSieb3@aol.com; on our site:http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=51 and others Tselutina, Tatiana: candidate of sociology, Belgorod State University. Belgorod, Russia, tanatselutina@mail.ru ; on our site: in Russian Veziau, Claude: Songwriter, composer and performer wholly dedicated to creating Harmony amongst all people in the world. He is fully tri-lingual in French, English and Spanish and writes as easily in one language or the other. His French language website: http://troubadourdevie.site.voila.fr . He is also a webmaster for World Harmony, in five languages, including Russian, French, English, Spanish and German at: www.world-harmony.com, http://WorldHarmonyNetwork.site.voila.frand co-creator and webmaster for the World Without Borders website in English and Russian, as international coordinator of the Planet 3000 team: http://worldwithoutborders.site.voila.fr .He is presently engaged, with Nina Goncharova of the Russian Federation in the creation of a world tour promoting global awareness and harmony, PlanEtre: Who Are We? Tourhttp://happypeopleplanet.site.voila.fr , e-mail: gong3000_vzy@yahoo.ca . Quebec, Canada 4.Pluralism of Social Harmony, Peace Culture and its Calendar and the Means of their Achievement Ada Aharoni The Necessity of a New Multicultural Peace Culture In view of the fact that the conflict of cultures has become one of the most prominent risk factors for the sustainability and future development of human civilization, its dangerous implications are examined and ways to curb it and to replace it with an ethical and peaceful multicultural system are suggested. The new regional and global multicultural system would include ethical and peace values from various cultures, and it would be based on the best of peace heritage, cultures and literature from various civilizations. It could be spread and promoted by telecommunications and the media, to counteract the regional and global culture of terror and violence. The establishment of an open global multicultural system and media, can help to impart to humanity a new multicultural identity, in addition to national and ethnic cultures and identities, and it can guide humankind in making the world more secure.The development of multicultural peace satellites over conflicted areas, which would spread the best of what is available in neighboring cultures and civilizations at the regional and global levels, would help to promote a peace climate. It would create bridges of understanding between people and nations and would abate the fear of the "other".A Case Study of IFLAC-The Bridge organization in Haifa, is examined, as a model of multicultural coexistence. There is likewise a necessity for a new revolution of “objectivity” in the media. Communications and the media should be brought to regard “Multicultural News and Peace News” as “newsworthy,” and a balance should be achieved between the reporting of “good news”, and not mostly, as is now the case, the covering of sensational reporting of violence and crime. The disproportional amount of homicidal and crime films and news, inflate the negative aspects of society and are a deformation of reality and normalcy. An innovative multicultural educational and cultural system, built on the peace heritage, literature and art from the various nations of the earth, and promoted by the media and advanced technology communications, is required at all levels of education including that of teachers and parents, in order to inculcate new multicultural, pluralistic and ethical peace values at all socio-levels, and to usher the promotion of a global village beyond war. If an influential regional and global multicultural system begins to sprout, the seeds for true peace would be duly planted, and it would indeed give a fair chance for the many "Voices and Cultures of the Earth" and their great yearning for global sustainability and peace, to be heard. The editor/translator note: Ada Aharoni’s paper on this theme is published on our site on a page 1-11: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=73 . In it such questions are considered: ·Multiculturalism versus the "war of cultures" ·The role of NGO’S: Non Governmental organizations ·The role of the MEDIA in building multiculturalism ·Israeli and Palestinian multiculturalism in Haifa ·IFLAC-The Bridge: multicultural coexistence and peace ·IFLAC: the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace ·Multicultural peace literature ·The importance of translation ·Education and Multiculturalism, and others. Leo Semashko --------------------------------------------- Rose Lord To Those Who Will Design the Future I am writing today to share with you my vision of peace and prosperity for the men, women and children of the world.My vision is specifically directed to the women and children because it is their needs and their suffering that I am most familiar with.But if this vision were to become a reality, surely all of man and womankind would benefit. In this vision there are no children suffering from constant hunger.There are no mothers experiencing the agony of watching their children starve.Healthy women and children all over the world have hope for a bright future, one in which they determine their own fate. In this vision there are fresh and wholesome vegetables on every dinner table.There are fruit trees ripe with luscious fruit in every village, town and city neighborhood.The women have dignified work to do, work that brings in an income and helps create a decent life for themselves and their families.In this vision of peace and prosperity there is no need for violence or war. Unfortunately, for more than a billion women and children all over the world this is only a dim and inconceivable vision.They live in the constant state of violence caused by hunger and poverty. Did you know that: ·Almost half the world's population, 2.8 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. ·Of these people, 1.2 billion live on less than $1 a day. ·There are approximately 850 million people worldwide suffering from protein-energy malnutrition (PEM).That means they simply don’t have enough to eat. ·About 10.9 million people a year die of hunger and about half of them are children. ·Fully one quarter of the world’s children suffer from PEM which is manifested in impaired physical and mental development and frequent and severe illness. ·and the most astounding fact of all. ·NONE OF THIS IS NECESSARY “Imagine all the people sharing all the world.” These are the words of John Lennon.Let’s imagine what that would look like for a moment. There is more than enough food, land and other resources for all of the world’s people to live healthy and comfortable lives. If the world was divided up evenly there would be approximately 1.8 hectares or about 4 ½ acres of livable, productive land available for every person on this earth.Now, the highest estimates are that it takes about 1.2 acres of land to feed and house one person comfortably. So, it’s easy to see that, even though the world population is increasing and the need for population control is important, right now, “sharing all the world,” does not mean anyone has to live in crowded slums or shanty towns. Does, “all the people sharing all the world,” mean that some would have to go hungry so that others could survive?Certainly not.Even without increasing production, the world’s agricultural system - as it is right now - produces enough food to provide 2700 calories per day for every man, woman and child on earth.No one has to go hungry.No one has to live in squalor.And no woman should have to watch her children starve. So we ask ourselves, “What can we do?” The answer is simple.We learn to share. Let’s expand our vision for a moment to a worldwide community of women, caring about each other, looking after one another, and refusing to raise their own children to kill another mother’s child.How could we make that vision a reality?Maybe first by realizing that we have much to learn from one another.Christian from Muslim, Muslim from Jew, Jew from Christian, etc.In the Islamic community there is a beautiful practice called Zakat.In this practice every person either gives a portion of his/her income or receives assistance from the community.Those who can, give.Those who cannot, receive.And no one goes without.It’s that simple and that beautiful and that is the kind of concept that we have to be open to learning from one another. Young women of the world, remember that ultimately, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”I implore you to learn the ways of non-violence, teach them to your children and be the generation that makes war a thing of the past. Om Shanti, May peace be with you ---------------------------------------------------------- Hilarie Roseman Social Harmony: the Enlightened Hearts and Common Creativity of Man and Woman “Values seem to be the dictates of the heart” Bachika (2002:212) and could form a common creed of values.Values are both internal and external, while symbols are just external.The heart is enlightened by a belief that is sacred and lived out in the secular world.The values from beliefs need individual and collective action for symbols to have life.An understanding that all churches are the same caused confusion and lack of identity in the Melbourne Catholic community.Their symbols lost meaning.Roseman, H. (‘Catholic Access of Mass Media Messages on Sex’, RMIT, 2000).The Asian Businessmen’s Congresses for Human Development give evidence of ecumenical beliefs and the values which come from them.‘A second enlightenment: an enlightenment of values and social concern to accompany our cognitive enlightenment’(Eastman,1989:x) could come from an understanding of the heart as the centre of consciousness.Lay people from all religions who celebrate life will listen to their core beliefs and live them out to enable the children of the world to have a more peaceful, brighter future.The sacred life values of justice, honesty, respect and human attachment will prepare the hearts of the next generation.The enlightened hearts of religious people breathe in the secular and breathe out the sacred. Education has helped us to fly into outer space, but what has education to offer to those of us entrapped in terrorism, lack of employment and the frenetic pace of trying to live in the 21st century?.Education brings forth great expectations of knowledge and wealth, but the experience of education, with bullying, high drop out rates and lack of employment can engender anomie and alienation.There is “every reason to place renewed emphasis on the moral and cultural dimensions of education” (UNESCO 1996/8)Bernard Phillips, working on the gap between expectations and reality, has put together a new method of sociology that rests on the work of the late C. Wright Mills.The Web or Part/Whole approach brings us into the kind of Sociological Imagination that Mills thought was imperative.“He hammered home again and again the notion that people lived lives that were not only bounded by social circumstance but deeply shaped by social forces not of their own making, and that this irreducible fact had two consequences:it lent most human life a tragic aspect with a social root, and also created the potential – if only people saw a way forward – of improving life in a big way by concerted action.”(Mills 1959:230) Professor Ada Aharoni asks us to build harmonious bridges of culture, understanding, and respect among people and nations.As I study the research of the Australian Family Association “Men + Women Apart, Partnering in Australia”, the lack of partnering in the 30 year old age group has brought me to the conclusion that the knowledge of peace and its growth have to be applied to the man and the woman, no matter which country they live in.The kind of peace that will enable them to love one another, stay with one another and bring up their children.Scholars in Australia and the U.S.A. have noted that low income patterns of both men and women, combined with the changing role of women, birth control methods, and government agencies all contribute to a world wide lack of commitment between men and women. One of the peaceful bridges for men and women could come from Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” Justice tempered with mercy, and in mercy love and forgiveness. “Love talks with better knowledge and knowledge with dearer love.”We need to grow into love. Wordsworth and Coleridge, are concerned about the development of character and the growth of the mind.In Wordsworth’s Ode to Immortality he tells us that he has lost his vision. “Whither is fled the visionary gleam”.Coleridge in Dejection, an Ode, has lost his capacity to feel.“I see, not feel, how beautiful they are.”And further, “We received, but what we give.”Both poets are agreed about the organic connection between mental growth and poetic development.Creativity is seen as both the cause and the product of growth Thecreativityofmenandwomentogetherwillrecreatetheworld.When God chose Abram and Sarai to lead his people in faith, he changed their names to Abraham and Sarah.To the end of Abram’s name he attached the Hebrew word for man.To the end of Sarai’s name he attached the Hebrew word for woman.Put both endings together, that is, “man” and “woman” and they make the Hebrew word for creation.From the couple comes creation and then family power, and with the help of other couples and families they can make a significant impact on local, national and international issues. ----------------------------------------------- Martha Ross DeWitt Power Sharing Power sharing is not a new concept. Among 'privileged' equals in society, it is expected that there will be a way for each person or group of people to have a voice in matters of importance to the larger group. The problem is in the definition of equal, but the rules have changed. Globally, the Industrial Revolution made it possible for material wealth to be distributed over a much larger sector of the population, and a middle class of workers and small business entrepreneurs achieved sufficient power to make their collective voices heard. A small group of 'equals' at the top still make most of the important decisions, but even that is changing as we move into an Information Age. The power bases of the old elites are slipping away, as new technologies create new elites, and the twin goals of education and democratization begin to create a global population that must be persuaded rather than coerced. As this consequence manifests, and becomes deeply ingrained in our conscious minds, legitimacy of the old elites will disintegrate, reinforced by the challenge of information that is shared freely in an Information Age. The ultimate consequence will be freedom of association for all, as we no longer are restricted by physical distance and societal constraints. Power sharing in all aspects of our daily living will be an expectation that can be realized. (The reference for this series of predictions is Figure J., Power-Shifts associated with each Structural Change Phase, p. 177, in BEYOND EQUILIBRIUM THEORY, Theories of Social Action and Social Change applied to a study of Power Sharing in Transition, University Press of America, Lanham, New York, Oxford, 2000.) ------------------------------------------------ Nina Goncharova Celebrations as synchronic waves of a New Harmonic World “Life is Celebration of Creation We can do it with presence and words And like both modern and ancients We can change it by touching and thoughts!” Nina Goncharova Celebrations are the essence of life. They are a transition process from ordinary life to Eternal Celebration of Life. It ispossible when we live consciously every moment, creating ourselves and life with the help of thoughts, words and actions.Celebrations are destined to awaken souls, to uplift human beings and to bring answers to the main questions: “Who are we? Where are we from? Where are we going? Why are we here on this planet?”Celebrationsareanopportunitytofeelourownessence. According to A. Etzioni – it is we who we are.They will constantly lead us to deep understanding of a simple truth – EVERY DAY IS A CELEBRATION OF THE CREATION OF LIFE.
Our civilization is living through a never seen before transition process – from a civilization based on consumption to one of creation, cooperation and consent. The basis of this civilization is the capacity of human beings to be SOURCES of HARMONY, capable of consciously create harmony with ourselves, with others, with the world and the entire Universe. In this transition process celebrations are meant to be the GATES of MASS TRANSISION into the epoch of conscious, feeling, loving humanity. They play a role of cultural and educational transformer of society, as our beliefs, cultural values and model of actions influence our way of living.It is due to them we can form new life beliefs, models of collective interrelationships, focused on harmony, peace and cooperation. They can become the mechanism of a heritage of culture and conscious creation of a new quality of life. Due tocelebrations, we can obtain new quality in our relationships - consent, unity, cooperation, love and joy of creation ourselves and life. Celebrations are a school of transition from unconscious life to conscious evolution and creation of a future in the here and now.Due to creative symbols and coordinated actions we can effectively help people to become united as a conscious humanity. Peace is the natural state of conscious people. We are one. This is the essence of planetary culture.Every human being and nation is unique and diversity is a great gift for our common development. We share the ideas of a Calendar of Harmonious Peace and its role of social harmony expressed in the 10 principles of Address to youth. We share the ideas of all dates of this calendar and suggest shortening and simplifying the names. 1 January – Day of the Golden Rule 10 January - Day of the Communication of Children 12 January – Day of Justice and Prosperity 5 March – Day of Forgiveness 1 May – Day of Love 31 May- Day of Charity and Support 1 June – Day of Children 21 June – Day of Harmony 30 July - Day of New Culture 21 September – Day of Peace 10 December - Day of Dignity 15 December– Day of Esperanto
We would like to suggest creating a joint Calendar Days declared by the UN, “old or traditional” celebrations enriched with new essence and New Celebrations appropriate to the coming new epoch. EVERY DAY IS A DAY OF HAPPINESS, LOVE AND HARMONY as Happiness, Love and Harmony are qualities of conscious people who know that they are parts of the Universe and contain all the potential of it. ------------------------------------------ Maria Cristina Azcona Peace and Literature Today the world is arriving to the abysses of times. Its emptiness is made of the lack of values and virtues. In its face, a horrible hollow is the mask of selfishness, of idolatry of money and frenetic consumerism. Man is adoring himself as God. His obscene ignorance conducts him to be obsessed from hatred to vile pornography. His basic error has sent him to an apocalyptical ending from where he will not be safe without the help of those who still believe in the existence of transcendental meanings like Goodness, Beauty, Justice, Solidarity, Sense of Life and True. The enormous effort of those who still believe in the power of words as generators of ideas about positive social changes, has given this first fruit: Peace Education through Literature, which understanding and researches are inspired, encouraged and developed by the authors of IFLAC, the International Forum for a Literature and a Culture of Peace, the living proof of the new literary movement towards Peace among the different nationalities and races. Also other organizations all over the world are starting to cooperate one with the other. This wonderfully inspired effort is the result of the best intention: To join hands for the future of Humanity, to avoid discrimination and over any difference of cultural costumes or even faith, make it real the new World. Writers in all languages are trying to be a remarkable paradigm for the global community. The process of peace is being initiated in these conversations, in this interactivity where nothing is so important as the building of respect. A similar love is to all in the world, a similar love to literature, to justice, poor etc.And the results are born in this nest where the child is Peace. Literature is Beauty in words and Peace Literature is an ode to Beauty because incarnates it in a new reality: Completed with a full content of deep values, and not an empty bottle. Man must awake and start the travel towards the centre of the soul, where the key factor of Happiness resides: Love in Earth, Authentic Justice, Universal Understanding and Global Peace. My ideas and feelingsaboutpeace,poetryandchildrenare expressed more widely in my last book of peace poetry "Window in Heaven" (2006), which is submitted on a site at: http://www.bilingualmca.bravehost.com . PEACEFUL PARADISE Sun will show its better face golden, quiet and serene. Far from cruel, evil shadows, creatures will dance without concern. Lovely daisies will pat zephyr, petals falling, free of fright. Moon will dream on lovely lakes While the beasts could dare drink. Hopes of love will be the path To overtake our grief. All these dreams could be truth if we amend the route towards a world in Peace. ------------------------------------------------------ Tatiana Tselutina Counselling for youth In a broad sense, we suggest to understand youth counselling as a socio-economic institution with the purpose of alleviating, through counselling agencies (organizations and specialists) the various youth problems by offering professional services (consultations, advice, emergency help to youth, etc). Youth counselling is part of a sector of scientific and practical acitvities, including counselling services; scientific activity - reception, accumulation and enrichment of scientific knowledge; and innovative activity – the act of transforming scientific knowledge and rendering it suitable for practical use in the youth environment. The functions of the counselling establishments are diverse: counselling (recommendatory), expert, analytical, preventive, educational, correctional, administrative, research, forecasting, organizational, intercultural communications, etc. The basicpurposes for counselling establishments to accomplish successful work are: -Rendering effective and readily available help to youth: offering the information, delivering advice, carrying out consultations, medical and psychiatric help, practical help, etc.; -Realization of short-term interventions during crisis situations of youth; -Assisting the establishment of friendly attitudes between adults and youth with the aim of understanding the problems and their solutions; -Encouraging the active participation of young people in social actions of their own choosing; and others. --------------------------------------- John McConnell 91 year old founder of Earth Day Hope for the future Is there hope for the future of life on Planet Earth? "Star of Hope" It would be great if we could launch a bright "Star" in the sky as a symbol of hope for Planet Earth. When it comes to the big questions of God's existence and what happens after we die, we are faced with inexplicable mystery.I don't have the answer.But for the here and now, I find that honest love (creative altruism) benefits people and planet and can continue the human adventure -- so that the next generation may continue to explore "What's life all about?” The greatest mystery to me is how Bush and other Western leaders can tell about how they exercised the love of Christ when they were converted and then devote billions of dollars to diabolical weapons and military programs, designed to make skeletons of their enemies, when the great Christian leaders of the past have demonstrated how to make your enemies your friends. With love and faith there can be non-violent resolution of conflict.History shows this is true.I have proven it true in my life and actions. OCTOBER 4 GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY The best way to peaceful progress on Planet Earth. In 1957 I obtained global attention for an editorial in my weekly North Carolina "Toe Valley View" newspaper.It urged that we launch a Satellite that would have a bright flashing light that would appear every night and be seen as a bright Star of Hope for all humanity. Sputnik, the first Satellite, had just been launched on October 4th.None of the media seemed to note that this was the "Feast Day of St. Francis."And launched by the then Godless USSR!(The person who chose the date must have been a secret Christian.) My own study and prayer life led to the conviction that we needed a common purpose that would appeal to people of all creeds and cultures - and a way to get attention for it.We needed something that would endhistory's terrible record of war and injustice. When we set out to explore Space, we discovered Earth.Now we know we are one human family and have only one Earth. But our addiction to war and our greed has almost ruined planet Earth and the future of its people.At the same time there is a growing recognition that we must change - - if we want to continue the human adventure. OCTOBER 4 SOLUTION SAINT FRANCIS PRAYER FOR PEACE Lord, make me an instrument of your peace Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury...pardon, Where there is doubt... faith, Where there is despair... hope, Where there is darkness... light, And where there is sadness... joy. Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. The Prayer of St. Francis appeals to people of every creed ant culture.The Space Program should plan now to launch a Star of Hope Satellite on October 4, 2007.This will be the 50th anniversary of our venture into Space.This can obtain global attention for the wonderful way to global peace that St. Francis provided. WWW.EARTHSITE.ORG ------------------------------------------------------- Rudolf Siebert The Golden Rule Already in the present transition period from modernity to post-modernity the open dialectic between the religious and the secular, revelation and autonomous reason, faith and knowledge can make possible the cooperation between religious and secular people, believers and enlighteners toward a project world ethos. It could be centered in the Golden Rule, which the Chinese Religion, Hinduism Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism. Christianity and Islam and other world religions have in common. The Golden Rule embraces not only the whole Hebrew Law and the Prophets, but also the New Testament and the Koran. Also many enlighteners and humanists have no problem to accept the Golden Rule as the foundation of a global ethos. The Golden Rule states in its Chinese form: Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you . The Golden Rule says in its Hindu Form: This is the sum of duty: do nothing to others, which would cause you, pain if done to you. The Golden Rule teaches in its Buddhist form: A state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must be so for him also; and a state which is not pleasant or delightful for me, how could I inflict that on another? The Golden Rule of Jainism says: A person should treat all creatures as he himself would be treated. The Golden Rule says in its Jewish form: Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. The Golden Rule teaches in its Christian form: In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. The Golden Rule states in its Islamic form: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. The End of the Lex Talionis The Golden Rule in all its different forms can conquer the Jus or Lex Talionis. on Sunday evening, April 9, 2006, the Israeli Government announced, that it has a right to retaliate against the missiles coming from the Gaza Strip: eye for eye, tooth for tooth! A few minutes later the Palestinian Authority announced that it had the right to retaliate against the Israeli counterattacks: free man for free man, slave for slave! Not even the limiting character of the Jus Talionis is taken seriously.The practice of the Golden Rule would be the end of the Lex Talionis: treat the other as you want to be treated! The analysis should not stop with the so called realistic assertion that the Golden Rule can not be practiced and thus the spell or the curseof the mutual application of the Lex Talionis can not be broken, Men like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Archbishop Romero practiced the Golden Rule even in its extreme form by following the fourth and fifth commandment of the Sermon on the Mount. It is rather so that the psychoanalytical and critical sociological and critical theological analysis must begin precisely with the question: why is it not possible for some people to practice the Golden Rule and why must they remain under the spell of the mythological Jus Talionis?Which powerful instincts in the basement of the human civilization prevent continually the application of the Golden Rule ? Self-preservation, death drive, the hunger of the predator, will to power? Should it not be possible to break for ever Adolph Hitler's aristocratic principle of nature, the right of the predator to enslave or to kill the prey, for the sake of the survival of the human species on this planet earth? When some people can liberate themselves from this ban of the Lex Talionis and do to others, as they want to be treated, why can not all do it, since they all share in the same human nature. In any case, who does not want to lose his eye, should not take it from his brother. Who does not want to be stolen from should not steal or engage in usury, or, or nationalism, orcolonialism, or imperialism. Who does not want to be killed by the sword, should not use it. Who does not want to be murdered, should not murder or engage in war, or torture, or terror, religious or secular. Whoever does not want his own country to be devastated by natural or historical agents, should not devastate other countries: otherwise New Orleans of August/September 2005 and the surrounding states, cities, towns and villages suddenly look with their thousands of wounded and dead, and refugees, and homeless, and hostages, and fires, and shootings and killings and rapes and disorganization and chaos like Baghdad and Basra and surrounding Iraq, and Kabul and surrounding Afghanistan from 2002 until now. Whoever does not want other nations to have or to use weapons of mass destruction, should also not have or use them himself. The Israelite, Jewish, Christian and Islamic prophets and the Hebrew psalmists, would have said: repent! The Lutheran Christian Hegel would have said: world-history is world judgment! Egalitarianism The Golden Rule implies a true egalitarianism among individuals and nations, without which there cannot be any true discourse, or personal or social morality.Whenever the Golden Rule is not actualized, the Lex Talionis will take its place. If we do not continuallyto others, as we would not have them do to us, then there will necessarily be endless mutual retaliation: until both opponents are exhausted, or one of them has been annihilated, or one of them has the courage to take the first step to break the curse. Wars of revenge can not be won, except through the total annihilation of the other, the so called enemy. If the wars of retaliation are not directed against another state but rather against a worldwide religious movement, then- since they are no wars at all in the first place according to international law- those non-wars can be won even less. There remains only either the practice of the Golden Rule, and thus the inclusion of the other, or cold, universal despair, and a third world war between the civilizations a la Samuel Huntington. (It is the global alternative Future II).The Christian theologian and ecumenist, Hans Küng, has presented such project world ethos, centered in the Golden Rule, to the World - Parliament of Religions as well as to the United Nations, and found full and universal acceptance. While Huntington’s prophecy of the clash of civilizations has admittedly and unfortunately at this moment in world history the tendency to fulfill itself, we, nevertheless, side with Küng’s project World Ethos, and the discourse among the religions and the civilizations in the hope, that it will help to produce peace among the nations: Shalom! Fundamental Principle According to the critical theory of religion the fundamental principle of the Golden Rule and four socio-ethical directives derived from it can show the way to global alternative Future III: a free society, characterized by personal autonomy as well as by universal, i.e. anamnestic, present, and proleptic solidarity. The fundamental demand is the Golden Rule. This principle was found and has persisted in many religious and ethical traditions of humankind for thousands of years: what you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others. In the perspective of the critical theory of religion, this fundamental principle should be the irrevocable, unconditional norm for all areas of life, for families and communities, for races, nations and religions. It should be supported by the insurmountable longing for the totally Other, than what is the case in nature and history with their often most cruel laws. This imageless, nameless and motionless totally Other stands for what once was called in Judaism and other world religions Infinite Power, Perfect Justice, Unconditional Love, or Absolute Truth. Ethical Directives On the basis of this fundamental principle of the Golden Rule, four ethical directives, found in all the great world religions of humanity, have to be remembered, if global alternative Future III should be realized: 1.You shall not murder, torture, torment, wound. This directive means in positive terms: you should have reverence for life. You should be committed to a culture of life and love, rather than to a culture of death. 2.You shall not lie, deceive, forge, manipulate. This directive means in positive terms: You should speak and act truthfully. You should be committed to a culture of truthfulness and tolerance. 3.You shall not steal, exploit, rob, bribe, and corrupt. That directive means in positive terms:You should deal honestly and fairly. You should be committed to a culture of fairness and a just economic order. 4.You shall not abuse sexuality, cheat, humiliate, dishonor. This directive means in positive terms: You should respect and love one another. You should be committed to a culture of partnership and equal dignity of men and women. While all four ethical directives can be found in the Mosaic Decalogue, which all three Abrahamic religions have in common, the first and fourth directive is also part of the specifically Christian Sermon on the Mount. However, its third, fourth and fifth commandment could also serve as ethical directive some day on a higher level of social and cultural evolution on the way to alternative Future III: no oath, cancellation of the Lex or Jus talionis, and love of the enemy.Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well as committed believers of other world religions, are under the obligation, to seek every opportunity to practice kindness and love or - in secular terms - solidarity, and to bring relief and blessing, wherever they go. They see providential happenings in history: that there is Divine control of human conditions and that many humanly unaccountable things happen in individual and collective life. Already now the above four directives constitute a global ethic, able to lead humankind toward alternative Future III. Global Ethic In the perspective of the critical theory of religion, such global ethic should not be imposed by law but be brought to public awareness and be based on the consensus of the unlimited, universal communication community. Such global ethic is simultaneously applicable to individual persons and to collectives and their institutions. Such global ethic does not only focuses on the collective responsibility to the relief but of any responsibility the individual may hold, and vice versa. Of course, often the social conditions, or history, or the system must be blamed for specific injustices, abuses, and crimes. But also the individuals may be responsible for themat least to some extend. The global ethic focuses equally on the responsibility of each individual in his or her place in society, as well as on the collective. Individual and collective are mediated through each other. They reproduce each other. As the individual is a product of society, so society is a product of the individuals. They reproduce and thus change each other. In order global alternative Future III to be reached, individual and society will have to go through mutual revolutionary changes. Peace Up to this point in history – April 2006 - the illegal and immoral wars against Afghanistan and Iraq have not brought the promised peace to either country, nor have they diminished terror around the world. As the two wars and civil wars continue, the decisive question arises more than ever before: what international commitments are to be made? In the perspective of the critical theory of religion, not the alternatives of the passing Modern Paradigm, but the alternatives of the future Post-Modern Constellation are most relevant. There are alternatives, if the billions that are being spent on sinfully expensive new weapon systems, in order to fight terrorism and in preparation of new wars among the civilizations, were being spent on kindergartens and schools, health care, hospitals, cancer research and public services at home and abroad, and on fighting against poverty, hunger and misery in the world. To promote the prophetic concept of Shalom Particular demands will be put on all world religions, not to support uncritically the official politics and policies of their respective governments, which only too often conduct politics as identification and demonization of the enemies, a la Carl Schmitt and Samuel Huntington: be these enemies the communists or the Gihadists, but to fulfill their own critical role in antagonistic civil society. The critical theory of religion does not promote a vision of war, but rather a vision of global alternative Future III – a peace society, in which the main antagonisms of modern civil society will have been fought through andwill have been reconciled. The critical theory of religion summarizes this vision of alternative Future III in five propositions: 1.There will be no peace among nations without peace among the world religions. 2.There will be no peace among the world religions without discourse among them. 3.There will be no discourse among the world religions without comparative foundational research in them and among them. 4.There will be no discourse among the world religions without global ethical standards: particularly the Golden Rule and its ethical directives, 5.There will, therefore, be no survival of this globe without a global ethic. Such global ethic – driven by the longing for the imageless and nameless totally Other than the horror and terror of nature and history – must guide the discourse and cooperation among civilizations, if they want to avoid further collisions, and the alternative Futures I and II, and if they want to survive, and if they want to find their way to global alternative Future III – a genuine peace society, characterized by the freedom of all, beyond the realm of natural, economic, political, and historical necessity. Shalom – It shall be well! ---------------------------------------------- Reimon Bachika Rationale of the Peace Calendar Leo Semashko has very forcefully and convincingly highlighted his idea for the adoption of a calendar that promotes a culture of peace and social harmony for future generations. Yes, we, the seniors, have survived the severe turbulences and atrocities of the 20th century that killed or let die, according to one estimate, as many as 187 million people throughout the world (Hobsbawm, E. An Age of Extremes: The Short History of the Twentieth Century 1914-1994. London: Penguin Books, 1994). The pain, misery, and anguish that has been caused by fellow humans must have been tremendous, horrible, indescribable. Will the human race ever learn? Much need to be done if this human madness is to be reversed. Appealing to youth, those who will be in charge tomorrow, and for another thing, adopting a Peace Calendar, seem most appropriate steps to take. In respect to the latter, we could say: “We are what we celebrate” (the title of a book edited by Amitai Etzioni and Jared Bloom; subtitle: Understanding Holidays and Rituals – Paperback Dec 2004).
Though the rationale behind this initiative is self-evident to me, I would like to formulate it theoretically in terms of values and symbolism. Both of these are core features of culture, in some way, the conscious/unconscious urges of heart and mind, the stimulants of human feelings and rationality.
Values are what people aspire to, what promises them satisfaction in various ways, among other things: financial security; physical health, beauty, and enjoyment; social prestige; personal integrity; a sense of freedom; friendship and love. Money is experienced as a value that is convertible into other values – hence its immense attraction is – but all basic values, like the basic human satisfactions, are inconvertible. In other words, every value is aspired to for its specific satisfaction. Every human being aspires to different values at different times. Thus, even within ourselves, it proves difficult to harmonize what we aspire to. How much more difficult is it to harmonize the values of a collectivity and humanity itself!
Symbolizations (symbolic expressions) are concrete images of what is valuable. Symbolizations advertise satisfaction. National flags and ethnic culture – religious or ethnic garb, veils, beards, shaven heads, and so on – are signs of belonging to ethnic communities or other groups. These suggest the security of belonging and common bonds. Religious ritual, wedding ceremonies, opening ceremonies of Olympics, world-soccer events etc., are celebrations of the values concerned. Fashion shows advertise physical elegance and beauty.
Seen from this perspective of values and symbolism, religions could play a major role in promoting those values that lead to world peace and greater social harmony. Common, religious values, though not easily adopted, are possible, because the sources of human happiness are universal and limited in number. With respect to symbolism, religions find themselves in an ambivalent situation. In order to remain unique congregations, religions need to cultivate and maintain their own distinctive symbols, ritual, and celebrations. Seeking unity in this respect is senseless. Religious diversity represents the richness of human culture. However, in order to feel united, it would be very helpful if religions would have some common customs, e.g., a common calendar event such as a Global Golden-Rule Day, or a Global Peace Day, or a Global Religious Thanksgiving Day. This is of enormous importance. It may inspire them to promote common values and a common faith. once the force of faith of hundreds of millions is directed toward peace and human harmony, the world is going to change. (For more elaboration, see: Bachika “Towards Harmony in the Religious Sphere: Focusing on Symbolizations and Values.” http://www.peacefromharmony.spb.ru/?cat=en_c&key=24) Please note: as you can find on a page 11-3 of our site, Professor Reimon Bachika has kindly proposed supporting our site and the Global movement of "Making children a priority in the world" as well as the idea of symbolic member/shareholding. See:http://www.peacefromharmony.spb.ru/?cat=en_c&key=127) Leo Semashko ------------------------------------------------------------ Harold Becker
Love and Harmony The journey of life takes a new direction when we become aware of the power of unconditional love residing within our heart every moment.This awareness begins a new approach to life that leads to personal peace, natural harmony and true genuine wealth.It also changes the very fabric of society as we begin to consciously express this unlimited love.Everything and everyone is noticeably affected by this energy as we move through our daily life with each step and encounter with one another. Being conscious of love ignites the spark that makes all things new and restores the wholeness where we once thought we were incomplete.This is the energy and wisdom that bridges all the diverse worlds, thoughts and perspectives and restores our innate connection to all things.Love, and more appropriately, unconditional love is that which brings peace and understanding within where a moment before it seemed nonexistent and perhaps even impossible So how does one realize this simple change of attitude?It begins with a desire to know who we are as a being upon this earthly plane.It is a shift in perspective from seeking in desperation outside ourselves for fulfillment to turning our attention within.By beginning the process of conscious awakening, we start to notice and observe who we are in relation to who we think we are.This subtle shift brings enormous change in personal understanding.We see with new eyes, hear with new ears and perceive a parallel world that always existed yet was blocked out of our consciousness by our own limiting beliefs. I am often asked, “How do we begin this process?”My response is that to ask this question means it has already started.Such is the nature of self conscious realization – we begin to ask new questions about life since we are no longer interested in the old habits we have been experiencing.For me, this is not necessarily a spiritual or philosophical journey; rather I liken it to a practical approach of common sense and deliberate effort to “know thyself” and with ever increasing self acceptance, to also “love thyself and all others without condition or limitation”. Each of us is a potent force of love when we allow this energy to express naturally. There is nothing we have to ultimately do, rather we allow ourselves to feel and be love. It is that simple. However, for so many, love is hidden under layers of hurt, trauma, drama, pain and suffering. Emotional memories, unspoken doubt, fear, resentment and a multitude of old beliefs often keep us from realizing that these thoughts and feelings have no real power over us. We give them power by living in the past and being afraid of the future. We ignore the love that is present every moment by embracing limitation. It is time to change that. It is time to release ourselves from our own self created bondage. When we accept ourselves just for who we are we transform the moment into peace, security, harmony, joy and love. This process begins with releasing our limiting beliefs, past mistakes, lack of self worth, pride and ego through the conscious act of forgiveness. It is up to us as individuals to undertake this journey of healing and conscious awareness. We change the world when we change our personal perspective. As we come to know who we are and why we act and react the way we do, we start to see ourselves in the faces of humanity. The reflection of hurt is our hurt, their pain is our pain, and another’s anger is our anger. It is seen in the face of nature too. Her destruction is our destruction, her beauty is our beauty. Equally in our children we see our potential and in their smile we see our joy.These seemingly random expressions are our past thoughts seeking manifestation. It is our constant reminder that love is the answer and the question. To see love in others, we must first know it in ourselves.We build a new reality in this present moment when we let go. When we choose love over fear, kindness over hate, integration over separation, and peace over war, we bring a new reflection to humanity... our loving selves. ---------------------------------------------------------- Renato Corsetti Esperanto for Linguistic Harmony and Linguistic Rights In a world increasingly aware of minority rights and linguistic and cultural diversity, the international language Esperanto is gaining renewed attention from policy-makers and from young people in the world. Non-governmental organizations and coalitions are pressing to have the international language question placed on the agendas of the United Nations and the European Union. Esperanto speakers in the news recently include 1994 Nobel laureate in economics Reinhard Selten, 1996 World Chess Champion Zsuzsa Polgar, and Tivadar Soros, father of financier George Soros. Indigenous Dialogues, a programme to strengthen dialogue among indigenous peoples across the world, bypasses former colonial languages by using Esperanto as a means of communication. . .Here are some additional facts about the present state of Esperanto. Purpose and origins. The basis of what became the international language Esperanto was published in Warsaw in 1887 by Dr. Lejzer Ludwik Zamenhof. The idea of a planned international language, intended not to replace ethnic languages but to serve as an additional, second language for all, was not new, but Zamenhof saw that such a language must develop through collective use, so he limited his initial proposal to a minimalist grammar and small vocabulary. Esperanto is now a full-fledged language with a worldwide speech community and full linguistic resources. Many of Zamenhof's ideas anticipated those of the founder of modern linguistics, the structuralist Ferdinand de Saussure (whose brother Rene spoke Esperanto). Characteristics. Esperanto is both spoken and written. Its lexicon derives primarily from Western European languages, while its syntax and morphology show strong Slavic influences. Esperanto morphemes are invariant and almost indefinitely recombinable into different words, so the language also has much in common with isolating languages like Chinese, while its internal word structure has affinity with agglutinative languages like Turkish, Swahili and Japanese. Users. The Universal Esperanto Association (UEA), whose membership forms the most active part of the Esperanto community, has national affiliates in 62 countries and individual members in almost twice that number. Numbers of textbooks sold and membership of local societies put the number of people with some knowledge of the language in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions. There are Esperanto speakers all over the world, with notable concentrations in countries as diverse as China, Japan, Brazil, Iran, Madagascar, Bulgaria and Cuba. Meetings and travel. More than a hundred international conferences and meetings are held each year in Esperanto - without translators or interpreters. The biggest is the World Congress of Esperanto, held in Zagreb (2001), Fortaleza, Brazil (2002), Gothenburg, Sweden (2003), Beijing (2004), and Vilnius, Lithuania (2005). World Congresses will take place in Florence, Italy (2006), Yokohama (2007). The first symposium of Esperanto speakers in Arab countries took place in Amman in 2000, the sixth All-Americas Congress was held in Cuba in 2004, and the fourth Asian Congress took place in Kathmandu in 2005. The 2005 list of the Pasporta Servo, a service run by UEA's youth section, contains addresses of 1364 hosts in 89 countries providing free overnight accommodation to Esperanto-speaking travelers. Organizations exist for special-interest groups such as Scouts and Guides, the blind, chess and Go players; and UEA's youth section, TEJO, holds frequent international meetings and publishes its own periodicals. Buddhists, Shintoists, Catholics, Quakers, Protestants, Mormons and Baha'is have their own organizations, and many social-activist groups use the language. Internet. Electronic networks are the fastest-growing means of communication among Esperanto speakers. There are several hundred mailing lists in Esperanto, for discussion of topics ranging from the family use of the language to the general theory of relativity. Esperanto is widely used in such chartroom protocols as ICQ, IRC and PalTalk. Web pages in Esperanto number in the hundreds of thousands. Some can be found through the Virtual Esperanto Library at http://www.esperanto.net/veb/, others by typing "Esperanto" in any search engine. For further information on Esperanto, contact UEA at Nieuwe Binnenweg 176, NL-3015 BJ Rotterdam, The Netherlands; tel. +31-10-436-1044; fax 436-1751; e-mail info@uea.org. ------------------------------------------------ Bernard Phillips How to move toward universal harmony: Transition from a stratified to an evolutionary worldview The question of how to achieve universal harmony requires, in my view, nothing less than (1) a fundamental change in people's worldview, basic assumptions or metaphysical stance:from what I call a stratified worldview to an evolutionary worldview.This requires (2) an epistemological or methodological change from everyone's present emphasis on a stratified or bureaucratic orientation to an extremely broad evolutionary scientific method that opens up to all knowledge, including the humanities, and that all of us may use in our everyday lives from one moment to the next.These changes in (1) and (2) in turn will require fundamental changes in our personality structures and in every single human institution or social structure:the family along with economic and political and religious and scientific and educational institutions. Of course, there is no way to explain and illustrate the above changes in (1) and (2) in a few pages.But a few pages can at least refer to other materials that can achieve the beginnings of an explanation. Most important is a website,www.uab.edu/philosophy/sig . In addition I can be reached by e-mail at berniephi@aol.com .Further, here is an introduction to a novel I'm writing that will summarize my key ideas: "In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king."These words were penned by the Dutch priest Desiderius Erasmus in the 16th century.They summarize my own view of the human race in the 21st century.Throughout the world--whether in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Near East, Africa or anywhere else--we humans are blind to our deepest threats and our infinite possibilities.Just who are we, by contrast with every other creature on earth?What is our past?Where are we heading? Yet we can indeed learn to see ourselves and our situation, and that vision can yield enormous power to change the world so as to develop human possibilities.Erasmus traveled throughout Europe to integrate existing knowledge of the past and write about its implications for the future.Because of his efforts to become that one-eyed man, he is viewed as the greatest European scholar of the sixteenth century.I believe that the integration of knowledge--but not just from European sources--must be our own task at this time in history if we wish to confront growing threats to our very survival.Those threats include visible problems (such as the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons) and invisible problems (such as the growing gap between what we want and are able to achieve). Not only can we solve these problems but we can learn how to continue to evolve without any limit.This may appear to be an impossible dream, given the magnitude and urgency of present-day problems.Yet we have only just begun to use the human being's two most powerful tools:language and the scientific method. Those tools have enabled us to create our world with all of its problems.But our understanding of their potential--as illustrated by the highly specialized approach to knowledge throughout the social sciences with very little communication across those areas -- has been extremely limited.Yet when we human beings learn to understand the nature of those tools, the vision and the power to change ourselves and the world will be ours. If Erasmus helped to set the stage for people's understanding of the scientific method, it was Sir Francis Bacon who is viewed as the father of that method, based largely on his 1620 book, Novum Organum (or The New Method). He claimed that "knowledge itself is power," but it must be knowledge broad enough to include poetry, drama and fiction, following the range of Erasmus' approach.It is this view of knowledge which is my own rationale for the present novel, for fiction can convey scientific ideas more effectively than non-fiction.This novel is based on my Beyond Sociology's Tower of Babel:Reconstructing the Scientific Method (Transaction Aldine, 2001) and my recent work with Louis Johnston, The Invisible Crisis of Modern Society:Rethinking Sociology's Paradigmatic Assumptions (Paradigm Publishers, 2006).Although my background is primarily in sociology, all available knowledge must be my province when addressing the accelerating problems of our era.Eric Erasmus and Bart Khayyam are fictional characters in the year 2010 who have come to realize that their experiences within Western culture severely limit their understanding. They fly to India to integrate Eastern philosophy with Western experience.Eric and Bart begin with twelve basic questions they are unable to answer, the same twelve questions discussed in the above-cited books.And they seek to combine wisdom from Hinduism, Buddhism and Zen with their own very broad Western understanding in order to answer those questions.When they return, they hope to use their East-West orientation to open up a path toward continuing human evolution based on people's using a very broad scientific method in everyday life. As for those 12 questions, they all have to do with how to change from a stratified to an evolutionary worldview.Each of the chapter titles conveys that question implicitly, e.g., for Chapter 1, how do we change physical structures from a focus on stasis to an emphasis on change?Here are the 12 chapter headings: 1Physical Structures:From Stasis To Change 2Biological Structures:From Outward To Inward-Outward Orientation 3 Personality Structures:From Stratified To Evolutionary Images (Thinking) 4 Personality Structures:FromAlienation To Expressive Orientation(Feeling) 5Personality Structures:From Addiction To Conscious Evolution(Action) 6Social Structures;From Authority To Scientific Method (Thinking) 7Social Structures:FromAnomie To Cultural Value Fulfillment (Feeling) 8Social Structures:FromSocial Stratification To Egalitarian Relationships (Action) 9The Momentary Situation:From Labeling To Reflexive Behavior (Thinking) 10 The Momentary Situation: From Negative To Positive Reinforcement (Feeling) 11 The Momentary Situation:From Conforming Behavior To Praxis (Action) 12 Connecting the Dots:FromStratified To Evolutionary Worldview Overall, I'm suggesting that the path to universal harmony is through each of us working to change our metaphysical stance or worldview to a focus on our own evolution, and to change our epistemological stance to use a very broad scientific method in our everyday lives from one moment to the next.That will yield in turn, fundamental changes in ourselves and in society as a whole so as to yield, over time, peace and harmony.But world problems are accelerating, and it is essential that we act rapidly in order to confront those problems effectively before it is too late. ------------------------------------------------ Claude Véziau Calendars and Creating Harmony through Music Throughout the year, there are many occasions thus set aside favourising a pause in the daily activities of life in order to observe, meditate upon and influence through collective intent certain specific events to occur. It can be, good harvests, good weather, peace on Earth, the occurrence of a change of heart of people so that they can accept each other’s views and thusbring about more desirable and favorable life conditions on our planet.Holidays or Dedicated Days are a time to put attention on specific subjects, in thought, feelings and actions. For example, a person can be working during the Day of Water or the Day of Air, but devote some time to meditate on the meaning of these elements in his life, the life of others, of the Planet, etc. There can be special activities planned for these days during and after working hours to accentuate and collectively act either in thoughts, feelings or actions the concepts and ideas represented by the theme. The idea of a calendar honoring the totality of ALL PEOPLES’ Celebrations and Good intents has become a primary tool for creating Harmonious circumstances on a Global scale. We are all children desiring to live in onE WORLD UNITED IN LOVE and HARMONY. I have always felt that Harmony was a question of vibrations primarily, as we can see that a musical note produces sympathetic vibrations called harmonics not only on it’s own wave, but also on many other seemingly unrelated notes. I quickly could relate my findings with my own experience in making music for a great number of people and found that this is one of the primary functions of music: to bring people in close harmony. Music is a primordial element in bringing harmony to the world, to the extent that it is created with such a goal in mind. This is why I now mainly sing and play for children... of all ages and size of body. As I write in my song “Une Planète, des Enfants” (One Planet of Children): “Car cette planète, c’est la nôtre, nous pouvons tous la faire tourner,et cet enfant qui est le nôtre, il faut lui donner la liberté… la liberté ». « For this Planet is our Planet, we can all make it turn, And this child is OUR Child, we are to give it Freedom... give it Freedom». With this in heart, I am now translating one of my songs to offer as a gift to the Children that we ALL are, no matter our years and body age. WE ALL ARE CHILDREN French title: Comprendre We come to Life one day on the wings of Love And in our parents eyes there glows Feeling of Hearts for all to see The little baby grows cared for by loving hands But too soon he will discover he must go on his own. Now he must understand every word he is told But no one really listens to what he longs so to say, to express, Grown-ups say they can't wait, there is no time to hear, Because life is too short and they wish to enjoy it, And there's no time to stop, oh no! We must run, we must hop, oh yes! There is no time to feel, no time to love.. And the big wheel keeps on turning The child becomes a man, all of his dreams become memories; The wonderful hopes of springtime fade into timelessness But comes a time in life when our dreams must unfold. Comes the time to re-member our illusions of freedom and our ideals of bringing peace and love to the world, Comes a time to take time, Time to stop, look and listen, Time to feel in our hearts and rekindle the dreams, Time to go within, find ourselves once again And be happy again. Then we will understand and be once more amazed To realise that the future can be enjoyed today If we learn to live together If we build our World together If we let our Hearts unite. We will then sing together, We will dance and laugh together And we'll finally hear each other And we'll finally understand That the Grand Life we yearned for Is just one step away, one small step: It's called the Step of Love. So let's put our dreams together And be Happy forever For Ever, We are one ! Claude Veziau, April 2, 2006 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talgat Akbashev Planet of Education and Harmony A great planetary system of mass education has been formed on our planet.It is one of the greatest achievements attained by people in the XXth century. In the 3rd millennium, education has became a systematic tool of management of the future. We can logically see that the destiny of all human civilization depends on what aims and results this system is directed towards. But we have a much deeper basis to promote education as the fundamental factor for giving birth to a New Society of Peace and Harmony. Each of us sooner or later comes to an understanding that the whole process of life is a learning process for awakening our life destination. Then it becomes clear that human life and life of peoples and the whole of humanity is a continuous process of awakening from within new individual and collective qualities, defining people as reasoning and conscious beings. The source of all problems emanates from hanging on to the instinctive animal principles of survival - struggle and competition. Growth of consciousness while remaining attached to animal principles of organization of life also generates a global existential crises.Survival principles and crises are necessary conditions to bring aboutevolution of consciousness in times of barbarity.The Task of a conscious human being is to realize that the Earth is a planetary school for evolution of consciousness. Evolution has been unconscious, up to the XXth century and is now - beginning with the ХХIst century,transforming into conscious evolution. If life is a school for the awakening of consciousness then it is obvious, that the family is a cell of education, a human settlement (community) is an educational community, a society is an educational system, and the Earth - a Planet for Education. Such an approach impels us to see the resolution of all the problems of human civilization, without exception, through changing the focusof attention to the HUMAN BEING and on finding ways of awakening his internal potential and his adaptive opportunities to create conviviality. In the light of the birth of a new society of creation, technological and information inventions, even if they concern energy and resources, are not primary. Primary are technologies favoring the awakening of human beings, as sources of inexhaustible forces and energy, as sources of harmony for all reality, as sources of creation of life itself and a new and totally unprecedented reality. Here we see two fundamental tasks having EDUCATION as a common basis. Task 1:creating effective mechanisms of having an increasing amount of people projecting and building a new society of creation and harmony. By participating in the action of continuously creating images of an individual and collective future, and in the realization of such projects all public life can be transformed into a educational channel for adults. Jointly creating images of a future society where the benefit of each individual becomes the condition of benefit for all – this is an attribute of the birthing of a Society of Education. Task 2: - including this increasing amount of people in the act of creating an educational system, to help a new generation to achieve and live on a level of conscious evolution. How can we make it reality? 1 - Communication of everybody with everybody on this planet. This leads us to the true creation of a planetary consciousness, where the well-being and success of each person, each being, becomes a subject of care to every human. 2 - Turning the focus of our attention, away from the consumption of natural resources and towards research on activating and using of our own internal resources. So this is the way to change from life for the sake of consumption to consumption for the sake of life. It puts the human being and his life first. What is life? Where does it come from? What does it consist of? Where is it going? Who am I? Where am I from? Where do I go? - This is the way of reaching the state of conscious evolution of reason on Earth. 3 – Creating a culture of feeling oneself, others and the world.. and the result of it is reverence for life and an awakening sense of life in all its variety. New Education guarantees new qualities and new opportunities for every human being. They are: - Growth of the adaptive abilities of every human being in relation to any environment of existence;
- Awakening evolutionary memory;
- Awakening of boundless potentials in everybody.
- New quality of relations between people. From the cult of struggle to a culture of peace, from the cult of competition and enmity to a culture of cooperation and diversity.
- New quality of relation of a human being with nature. Conscious ecology of the deep interrelations between nature and human beings.From ecology of nature focused on protecting nature from the person, to ecology of consciousness of a human being as a source of harmony for nature - minerals, plants, micro and macrocosm. From the protection of nature to awakening deeper and deeper layers of nature and the universe within every human being.
------------------------------------------------- Igor Shadkhan Grandmothers and grandfathers for children and peace From my long producer’s experience it is obvious, that the most trustworthy and wise people are the grandmothers and grandfathers (grandparents). Especially when they are with their grandchildren. This is a very beautiful combination. At the same time, the dialogue is very enriching. They can answer an infinite amount of questions about life, destiny, happiness, etc. Grandparents wish their grandchildren to be happy! To be happy means to be honourable and, especially, to respect grandparents. « Do not forget us! As we do not forget you. » To be friends with one’s grandparents means always to have a roof above our heads, to have that unique place, where we will always find will shelter, warmth and understanding! It would be a remarkable thing to create a collection of photos on our web site, "Peace from harmony".These photos could represent: I and my grandfather, I and my grandmother, or grandfather and grandmother, etc. They would show that we can all be interrelated through our ancestors in a pledge of peace. It would present us a true picture of beauty, force, perseverance, amazing inventions, responsibility and, simply, of the will to survive. A history of the world through the family …! I invite all interested people to send on the web site or to my email (shadkhan@shadkhan.ru) such photos, on the basis of which I shall create a remarkable documentary television film, "Grandparents for the children of the world and harmony" My offer to the Calendar is: To mark a Day of grandfathers and grandmothers (or grandparents) on March 14! A cheerful and solemn holiday! Expressing the connection of generations! -------------------------- Abram Jusfin Musical Harmony, Disharmonious Order and Harmony Calendar Musical harmony is one of the greatest spiritual forces of the world and, at the same time, one of its great illusions. The spiritual force of musical harmony resides in its nature, revealing a contradictory and, simultaneously, complimentary unity of all sides and processes of Being. This is the source of its illusory nature, because, in its finished form, it gives us a deep feeling of harmonious unity, showing the external world reality as being a global order, when it is obvious that it is not. From this, we can see one of the major tasks of mankind: comprehension of world unity as an interaction between harmony and disharmony, the two polarities. The way to such comprehension lays through thekeen observation and analysis of the signals, which are sent to us throughout our internal and external life. Comprehension of the harmonious message received, understood and experienced by us, is a correct, and probably the only way which will result in a social, ethical and aesthetic harmonization of our existence. Regarding the "Harmony Calendar", it might be pertinent to announce that each day of an annual circle is a day of peace, bringing each of us, and all together, closer to an establishment of harmonious relations between people on our planet. Everyone can name these days in their own way. It is important only that each day be filled with an idea of harmony and incites people to actions leading to the establishment of harmony in the world. If we are to allocate days of harmony, then, in my opinion, they should be named for those people who do the great work of the world soul: Indian king Ashoka, Rerich, Kazalts, Schweitzer and other similar people, avoiding marking days by abstract concepts. only real, living, people led us in the past - and will lead us always – to faith, light and hope for the future world harmony. ---------------------- Takis Ioannides Philosophy, soul harmony and children In my life, I was never faced with a war. I was never faced with a civil war as well. My father tells me all the time, "Taki you are very lucky you didn't meet war in your life". My father's family lost many members in the last Greek civil war (1949-1951) and also during the 2nd world war. My father is the only survivor, of the wars, out of his 7 family members... My mother also lost a brother in the Greek civil war... In my life, I am following the way of Socrates and Plato, and mainly the path of Jesus Christ, trying to get the proper balance in my soul. Plato describes the soul to be a chariot with two horses, a black colored one and a white colored one. on the chariot, there is a charioteer, who tries to keep both horses in balance. It is very difficult as the black colored horse (the soul's evil side) is powerful. So it's trying to drive the chariot towards destruction. It is difficult for the charioteer to keep the chariot's balance, but it depends on his will, what he will decide to do. I agree that only harmony of the soul may solve our planet’s problems. In order to reach this harmony, all people living on planet Earth must be educated. This can be accomplished in the family and school, via TV and radio stations, via newspapers and magazines.Mainly to understand its meaning. My opinion is that the scientists who sell their knowledge for money and produce weapons are awful. THEY ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS on PLANET EARTH. Scientists must serve the humanity. Instead of making weapons or war planes, they must offer their knowledge and their soul to making a better planet. When Pythagoras was close to leave this life, he asked his students to burn his books and all his scientific discoveries in order to protect the future of our humanity. He could see in the future the awful scientists and people who believe in money instead of God. He could see our complete destruction. When his student Architas (later philosopher) showed him a wooden bird he’d made, capable of flying(!), he asked his teacher: “What do you think of my creation, teacher?” And Pythagoras replied: “It’s a pity spend your whole life at the level of the material. You should to feel shame for it Architas”. Dr Einstein said once that you cannot be named civilized if even one child on earth planet is unhappy. I shall add to his words, with respect to his memory: if even one child on earth is HUNGRY, THIRSTY, RAPED, ILL, UNEDUCATED, UNPROTECTED and ALONE. It's my daily dream for the armies to be withdrawn one day. It's a big effort to assist the children. I am afraid that we have not enough time to reach such targets. We must all do our best for the children who are our future. one man cannot do everything, but remember that a little flame can start a big fire. I am optimist, because hope never dies… Let’s protect the children, dear Leo, with all the other people who are willing to do the same. The tool for it is philosophy. Because only philosophy may educate any human and mainly the children in the way of basic and real values of our life. It’s the science of definitions and discrimination, because it clarifies what is justice and is not. It is a medicine for the illnesses of the soul. It guides us to harmony, to peace, to love and to God. ------------------------------ Leo Semashko Tetrasociology:Social Philosophy for a Harmonious Era of an Informational Society Each society, of every civilization, marks specific calendar days on which to celebrate the most important events in its history. Calendars provide daily reminders of cultural values. In Western civilization, an Age of Industrial Societies, that began in the 17th century and expanded into the Risk Societies (Ulrich Beck, 1992) up to the middle of the 20th century, calendar days were marked to celebrate freedom, which has been arrived at through national-liberation revolutions and wars of all scales: local, national, regional and world wars. These calendars have celebrated cultures of freedom obtained by armed conflict. Almost every day of the year is marked by an event of victory or damages inflicted by revolutions and wars (including trade wars). Almost every day offers a celebration of Revolution, Liberation, Independence, Victory, and battles of all kinds by military forces of land, air, and sea. Each event is remembered with an appropriate military parade. Industrial-Risk Societies (IR-Societies) are at war or prepare for war every day; so their calendars record events of military importance. Thereby, cultures of war rather than peace prevail. The rationale for this: if you want peace, prepare for war (Si vis pacem, para bellum). The culture of freedom has turned into a culture of war, terror, violence and humiliation. The IR-Societies of Western Civilization are increasingly burdened by the costs of military preparation, including stockpiles of armaments, by the risks of military engagement, including the risk of nuclear annihilation, and by the loss of a growing number of innocent young lives in senseless military battles. During the 2nd half of the 20th century, within the culture of IR-Societies, a global, Information Society began to emerge, which can be and will be, at the advanced stage, harmonious or it will not be at all. A Harmonious Information Society (HI-Society) seeks to preserve the freedoms and technological achievements of IR-Societies, while replacing their destructive tendencies with a new emphasis on harmony, shared information, and lasting peace. This new culture slowly builds on the best features of present cultures, gradually synthesizing the achievements of different civilizations: East and West, North and South, while introducing new social priorities and values, which create a new order of social harmony. This order is an order that is coordinated and dialogic, and represents a balanced unity of diversity/difference. (A cultural difference and its historical meaning is investigated by Craig Calhoun in his book "Critical Social Theory", 2003). Such an order is identical to a harmonious peace/order that is maintained as a sustainable balance of social groups and ethnicities on the basis of children’s priority. Children are the main fulcrum for a HI-Society and its peaceful, unified order. The harmonious order of the different ethnicities and civilizations embodies the most ancient and widespread, and therefore, the most natural value for ALL cultures - harmony. The idea of social harmony developed in all civilizations, first of all in Confucianism and Buddhism; and also the South, in the beliefs of Native Africans, Indians and others.Professor RichardNisbett's(2005)conclusion,that "Harmonyis a central idea in East Asian philosophy," can be attributed to the basicculturesof East and South.However, the idea of harmony is not alien to civilizationsofthe North and West.It emerged in western thinking in Homer'spoemsandfound development in the schools of Pythagoras, Plato,Aristotle, and also in the epochs of Renaissance and Leibnitz. However, not harmony but freedom became a priority value for the rapidly developing industrial societiesofEurope and America. But the harmony idea still lives in Westerncivilization today.Therefore, harmony, as the general (but in a different measure) value of all civilizations provides the basis for an era of social harmony in an information age. Our calendar for this era is focused on a Global Harmony Day. Together with harmony, we find in this calendar a place for theinseparable values of: Peace, Love, Justice, Golden Rule of Religions, Forgiveness, Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, Happiness and others, especially important for future generations, for youth, and for children. In past societies, harmonious cultures did not realize social support (socialactors),therefore it was more (in the West) or less (in the East) marginal in all civilizations. only in HI-society can culture and order of social harmony find comprehensive and natural social support, in what I have defined as four sphere classes of the population, employed in four spheres of social reproduction, which (spheres and sphere classes) work together to reproduce the social order. They provide support for a harmonious order of diversity. on the basis of these harmonious classes, a harmony culture becomes a priority for HI-societies of all civilizations, and creates a harmonious global social order, with children as a priority. The nature of the sphere classes in this harmonious social structure is explained and illustrated in the tetrasociological theory, which unites the primarily eastern value idea of harmony and the predominately western structural idea of societal spheres. This last concept is introduced in many theories of our time. A.Giddens (1990), L.Sklar (1991), R.Robertson (1992) each describe three societal spheres; U.Beck (1998) and G.Ternborn (2002) describe four spheres; A.Appadurai (1996) describes five spheres. For a detailed discussion of spheres and sphere classes, see "Tetrasociology: Responses to Challenges," 2002, on our website at: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/docs/2-1_eng.pdf . Instead of a hierarchy of classes defined by property or wealth (upper, middle and working classes), this culture establishes a harmony of sphere classes, and assigns a budgetary priority to children and youth, a group that has the greatest information needs, abilities and potential in a HI-society. The quality of children defines the quality of the HI-society or, in other words, its social quality depends on the information quality of children. In the new culture of harmony, which can also be called a "sphere culture", priority is not placed on industry but on the social sphere, of which the subsphere of childhood is a central part.In the new harmonious order, the priority is not on the economic branches of a military-industrial complex, but on the social branches of an educational-health complex. For more discussion of children's priority, please visit: http://www.peacefromharmony.org/docs/2-4_eng.pdf.
This culture of harmony promotes a new sharing of democratic power among sphere classes. In this democracy, or “sphere democracy:” http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=13, all population groups receive appropriate access to democratic elections. The harmony culture gives children voting rights exercised by parents, which creates a potential base of support for “the priority of children” by groups closely connected to them: parents, grandparents, teachers, doctors, counselors and other caregivers. These groups, together with children, comprise 50% to 80% of the population in any given country. Thus, the culture of harmony creates a powerful basis for democracy focused on peace and nonviolence for the sake of protecting children, youth and future generations. Children’s priority also helps to replace religious, ethnic and racial clashes with cooperation and harmony among culturally diverse groups. These strengths of a culture of harmony, when focused on making life better for children, outweigh the economic justifications for conditions that perpetuate poverty. A culture of harmony based on sphere classes and children’s priority creates the necessary prerequisites for a social order of harmony, which finds its theoretical explication in tetrasociology, a postpluralistic social philosophy. (Postpluralism does not oppose, but strengthens and develops the philosophy of pluralism). The creative nature of culture is opened by Jeffrey Alexander in his book "The Meaning of Social Life: A Cultural Sociology" (2003).
Thus, in tetrasociology the social harmony of sphere classes is understood as a natural condition of a HI-society. Placing a priority on children is a means of achieving overall social harmony, which is established by the necessary legislation of children's suffrage executed by parents. The parents, first of all young and future parents, and also the social groups most closely connected to them (teachers, doctors and child caregivers) come to a consciousness of the necessity of children’s priority and their suffrage through wide enlightenment in the harmonious educational system and the MEDIA, and also under pressure from global and local (in each country) social movements: "Making children a priority in the world." See Contents section 10, page 10-8, http://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=121. The priority role of children in the harmonious culture of a HI-society is reflected in our Calendar of Harmonious Era by many of the celebratory dates connected to children: Charity, Protection, Priority, Communications, Promise, etc. From the point of view of tetrasociology, this Calendar expresses a new quality of social existence (life) and a new order of harmonious peace, derived from sphere classes and children’s priority in society. Our harmonious era calendar unites people, religions and civilizations in the direction of achieving a harmonious information society (HI-society). This calendar is an alternative to the numerous calendars associated with conflicted IR-societies, which divide people, religions and civilizations, and immortalize those caught up in confrontations and clashes. Calendars of the Old Era, for two thousand years, have been filled with reminders of wars and conquests, whereas our Calendar of the New or Harmonious Era promises future generations a realistic hope of preventing wars, terror, poverty and humiliation. The cultures and calendars of warfare are left in the past. A new culture, order and calendar of social harmony now take their place. Tetrasociology gives a rationale for a social order of harmony, and describes its structure, role, time and conditions for achievement. If, as the ancient philosopher Protagoras observed 2500 years ago, human is measured by things, and things a measure of human, then, from tetrasociology we might say: if a measure of humanity becomes harmony, then harmony becomes a measure of human and vice versa. If this measure is introduced and embodied in an era of HI-society, then it becomes a measure of the universal, multidimensional, informational human. An important evidence of this measure is the Harmonious Era Calendar, a project submitted in our Address. Tetrasociology accords an adequate social philosophy for this calendar, uniting its different peaceful dates into a harmonious whole. In the future, the history of mankind will be divided into two periods: Harmonious Era (h.e.) and BEFORE Harmonious Era (b.h.e). Or its history will not be. As John McConnell wrote: “Many scholars agree human history will soon come to an end - unless there is a major change in human conduct” (www.earthsite.org.) on the basis of what I have discovered in formulating the social philosophy of tetrasociology, I am convinced that such a major change can occur only through transformation from our preoccupations with social disharmony - to fully embracing a natural order of social harmony made possible in an information age. ------------------------------------------------------- 5.The First Responses Dear Leo and all, …………I think a Calendar of Peace is a marvelous idea……….. Hilarie Roseman, Australia February 10, 2006 ------------------------ Dear Leo I was working on the website this morning when your email arrived. I am pleased to say it is now up on the website. http://my.calendars.net/betterworld I have it linked off the website but still have more to add and more links but I am happy with the results... I have added both my name and that of Harold to the top part with the rest of you, as I think we are together coming up with something well worthwhile. You will also notice where you wrote about the Promise Club I have changed taken out The Wailing as this is a continuing event, but I have added the 30th November Caitlin's birthday as International Day of Promises... love and hugs Kerry Bowden, Australia February 10, 2006 ----------------------------------- Dear Leo, What a stimulating and inspired Address!I found as I read through the document that it contains deep insight that can only come from a globalperspective, especially held in a viewpoint of unconditional love for alllife.Although the Address has the children of the world at its heart and focus, it speaks to all humans and clearly addresses the paradigm shift we are undergoing.You and your team have clearly realized what I term the "silent revolution" and how the social progress of the planet as a whole is undergoing a fundamental change in consciousness. Your premise is most intriguing as you show how the old society uses the Calendar of separation, control and destruction, whereas we are now developing a sustainable Calendar that is based upon unity, harmony, wisdom and above all, love.I found this way of description within the text of your Address, fresh, inspired and truly practical. Bringing this awareness to the collective humanity with the children in mind is the key to the realization of this idea.Without love for the children, we shall never know love upon this planet for the seed must be planted at an early age to take root within each heart.Only then do we experience the blossoming of a new world based upon love. Please consider my personal commitment along with the collective of The Love Foundation.I will assist in whatever ways I am able to as this journey unfolds. Love, light and peace, Harold W. Becker, USA February 10, 2006 --------------------------------- Dear Harold, Many thanks you for the inspired reply and strong support! We are happy to your joiningtoourteam.You are absolutely right concerning meaning of love for children and children for love, which (children) are its seeds. We would like to knowyouropinionaboutour discussion, and also about the title. How do our texttitle? Bythe Address? By the Appeal? By the Promise? Or the Commitment? Thelastideahas flown at you. The Address is neutral. The Promise rather go forthesmallchildren, as it wonderfully has made Kerry in her Promise Club. Butnotfor youth, which age is up to 30 years. We address to youth, to the young parentsratherthanto children... Can be really the Commitment will be more adequate title? Could you give reason for your idea in more details? Cordially, Leo February 19, 2006 --------------------------- Dear Leo,
As for the Peace Calendar, I of course approve of it. only -- I am afraid to say so -- it is a little too long! Simple manifests are more powerful, and, as I wrote last time, intelligent people mostly want others to say things as simple and clear as possible!!!
Cordially,
Reimon Bachika, Japan February 12, 2006 ---------------------------------- Dear Leo and all: First, I would like to suggest a new educational curriculum, to begin in the elementary grades, that emphasizes peace making and conflict resolution…. Second, I would add November 11th to the calendar. This originated as Armistice Day, the day World War I ended and a peace agreement was signed. It is now called a Day of Remembrance. Conflicts that are forgotten before their origins are understood, and addressed in some way, are often destined to repeat, as occurred in World War II. The calendar entries remind us of work that we still have to do, on a daily basis, year after year, to create a peaceful world for children, and teach them how to do the same. What matters not so much is that we all think the same, but that we work in harmony. Music has many chords and many tunes. We each must do what we do best and trust that it will all come together to make the world a better place, for all, not just for those with whom we tend to agree. I am most happy, Leo, to be your co-author in this effort. Martha Ross DeWitt, USA 12/02/06 -------------------------------- Hello, I know that Leo is a large philosopher, but I was not likely yet to read his work. If I included/understood well, its prospect for a philosophy of peace leads it to be interested particularly in the children and adolescence. It is true, that the seeds for peace begin dice childhood. if with the birth, the human being dispose of conditions of possibility, these are the social and family reports/ratios which models it. From where, need for the training of a culture of peace and nonviolence. Cordially with you. Guy CREQUIE, France 18/02/03 ---------------------------------------- Dear Leo, …………………….. If I were to do a calendar, it would emphasize dates having to do with the rise of a much broader scientific method than we have now………………. I believe the priority should shift to sociologists first, social scientists second, and the world third.This doesn't mean we have to wait before 2 and 3, but our emphasis should be on 1……. For one thing, I believe that we should work toward getting sociologists and other social scientists to develop a scientific method that truly opens up to the complexity of human behavior so that we can integrate more and more the bits and pieces of knowledge that presently exist in all of our libraries….And at the same time, we social scientists can demonstrate the power of such knowledge on the range of major social problems throughout the world, including peace, the situation of children, the failure of people to develop close and egalitarian relationships with one another, the problem of terrorism, the problem of the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the problems of disease and starvation and genocide, the problem of developing a vision or image of a humanistic and evolutionary future for all peoples, and much much more…………. Best wishes, Bernie Phillips, USA February 19, 2006 -------------------------------------- Dear All ……..I have added November 30 as The International Day of Promises. That is what The Promise Club is all about getting promises from adults for the children of the world and then making sure that those adults keep them, so this document Leo and all of us are putting together give me much Joy as it is doing just what I promised Caitlin and the children of the world, adults working to make it a better world for them.... Leo I thank you for your committed work, you help me keep my promise. Love and hugs Kerry Bowden, Australia 20/02/06 ----------------------------------- Dear Leo, I have been following some of the discussion regarding the philosophy of Children the Priority and the proposed calendar.In my simple way of thinking, making children the number one priority is as natural as eating, sleeping and breathing.Even wild animals protect their young against the greatest of threats and put their own lives on the line for their children.Yes, I thinkwe should make the welfare of children the top priority. ABOVE everything else, and when we do that, all the rest will fall into place. I have one suggestion for the calendar:An international day for the Eradication of Hunger. Om Shanti May Peace Be With You Rose Mirabai Lord USA 20/02/06 --------------------------------------- Dear Leo, I support your address to the young. As ever, I am very busy and have no time to participate more actively. Best wishes, Bernard Scott England 21/02/06 ----------------------------------- Hello Leo, As for the Address/Commitment/Appeal... I like the way it is evolving. Commitment may be a good direction as it references what we as individuals are prepared and willing to do.It also places the responsibility firmly with the individual - this is important as we all know we can never change another person, we can only change our personal perspective and hope that by our model we encourage others to draw their own conclusions.This is a cornerstone of our work with The Love Foundation... to provide the reminder that only we can love and then share that love around us. These are just some ideas from my perspective.I look forward to hearing from you. Love, light and peace, Harold W. Becker, USA 21/02/06 ---------------------------- Dear Semashko. I am really moved by the dedication of the co-authors associated with you for the fulfillment of your mission, I really liked your appeal to the younger generations of the world especially the young parents. … It is only with a group of really conscious youth that the priority of the children and their rights can be achieved in the future. I myself appeal to the youths of our country to take up the oath of protecting our future generation of our country who will bear the torch of honour of our country to the world. I shall request them to make a pledge to look to the priority of our children now and in future they will work to offer them the priority position as a respectable senior citizen of our country. We all know that as we teach so we get. My respect to your mission and my heartiest greetings to all co-authors of the mission for showing us the path, that the future of a country depends upon its future generation who are to be nurtured and protected with care from odd exposure. `ALL LOVE, No violence is the source of real peace` Maitreyee Roy, India 22/02/06 ------------------------------------ Dear friends! I am very grateful to you first of all for your support of our Address (Commitment/Appeal) to youth and for all your many critical remarks and offers. I am very grateful to you especially Bernie, Martha and Hilarie for them as they have allowed me to find new, as I hope more perfect, variant of the Address. At the same time it became powerful stimulus for our creative and fruitful dialogue. ………I very much would like to receive your additions, specifications and offers in the new Address text and also your abstracts up to 1,5 pages with a brief statement of your theoretical positions for their publication and discussion on our site. Our cooperation, search of the consent and weighed decisions unite and strengthen us on ways to the harmonious peace, deduces us on its qualitatively new level. It will find a wide public resonance. Private questions of the disagreements I have left for the personal answers. Best harmony wishes, Leo Semashko February 25, 2006 ------------------------------- Leo, I respond with gladness to your new address to youth, and am able to say that I can accept it…. With love to all, Hilarie Roseman, Australia 26/02/06 ------------------------------------------- Hello Leo, Your commitment and dedication to the web site is amazing.You have brought together an important focus that places a solid foundation for a new paradigm. We, at The Love Foundation, are honored to participate and look forward to a long and enjoyable collaboration. Congratulations on a continuing job very well done. Harold W. Becker, USA 27/02/06 ----------------------------------------- Dear Leo, Hilarie and Martha, Leo, I'm happy that you are opening your mind to a different kind of address focusing on world peace, one that takes into account the objections that I raised along with Hilarie and Martha.My feeling is that an address can be most helpful, but only if it is clear as to who the audience is, what the message is, and what the objective is ……………………………….. Best wishes, BerniePhillips, USA 27/02/06 ------------------------------------- Dear Bernie, I like your positive response to the new text of our Address to youth, which in many respects is obliged to your severe but productive criticism. I am grateful to you for it though I am ready to argue with you to some its items. But it will be then. ………… At me one more very important, from my point of view, the addition has appeared to a question about correlation among dialogue and harmony, dialogic and harmonious worldview. The dialogue is a process of the communications within and between diversity and the harmony is not only process of the communications but also is the optimum (best for all diversity) RESULT. There are many examples of dialogue, which is fruitless, infinite and does not conduct to desired and necessary result. one of such examples is the negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Therefore aspiration to harmony (to the harmonious decision, worldview and understanding) is the very important addition to dialogue, which receives from harmony final sense. The harmony also is the important result of interrelation of a Head, Heart and Hand, which are investigated in your book. I very much would like to learn your opinion on this important theoretical and practical moment. Best harmony wishes, Leo Semashko February 27, 2006 --------------------------- Dear Leo: I have seen your website and the important message on the International Day of Harmony.If it helps, please add my name as a signatory to the statement.As compared to others, I have little to offer except encouragement and to speak about it to some of my colleagues and friends. It is quite remarkable how much you have accomplished, despite some of those setbacks. With my warmest regards, Will C. van den Hoonaard, Canada 02/03/06 ------------------------------------ Dear Leo, Many thanks! I support this Address and I am very grateful to be included in the co-authors. Best wishes, Renato Corsetti, Italy 02/03/06 ------------------------------------- Dear Renato! Thank you very much for your support! I was happy to include you in the Address co-authors. But I have for you good idea: let's offer in the Harmony Calendar the International Day of Esperanto (or Global Esperanto Day), for example, in Zamengof’s birthday at December 15. Global Esperanto Day is a day of universal international language of all peoples, it is day of the discontinuance of linguistic discrimination, it is day of joining of youth to the most harmonious, peaceful and brotherly language of the world etc. as you could add to its definition. Best harmony wishes. Leo Semashko March 2, 2006. ----------------------------------- Dear Ada, Ihavefor you good idea for a new calendar. I offer to include in the Address text the following phrase: "DrAdaAharoni,founderand the IFLAC President offer in a new Calendar the InternationalDayofaNewPeace Culture in (data?) in the day of the IFLAC creationin 2000. This day has put a beginning to search of the new ways to the peacecultureconstructed not on a principle " want peace - prepare for war ", andonthewaysoftheliterature,poetry,art etc., i.e. on the ways of harmony". It would be delightful addition in a calendar of harmony, which will immortalize you andyour remarkable IFLAC. You should only specify birthday for IFLAC. Best harmony wishes, Leo 03/03/06 --------------------------------------- DearLeo : The Golden Rule Day is a wonderful idea. Whatever date you determine is alright with me!! Maybe we can leave out the general God ideaand can simply say, that the Golden Rule is recognized in all living world religions as well as in secular humanistic movements. I am with all my best wishes for you and your wonderful work, Rudolf Siebert, USA 03/03/06 ----------------------------------------- Hello Leo, I am attaching my document as requested earlier this week.Thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts.I am encouraged by the coalition and collaboration of so many ideas coming together around the world through your efforts. We are receiving wonderful feedback for Global Love Day and many new proclamations from new cities throughout the US.I will send an update announcement of everything next week. Love, light and peace, Harold W. Becker The Love Foundation, Inc. March 11, 2006 ------------------------------------ I support an idea of the Global Harmony Day and I join to the offer to measure of a global information society by a Calendar of harmonious peace. This is the some kind of opening of Epoch, as well as after Jesus began calculation of our Time. Olga Ushakova Russia 02.04.06 -------------------------------------- Dear Dr Leo Semashko I want to tell briefly about myself, your site “Peace from harmony” and our cooperation. In 2002 I founded an International literary movement, Bilingual MCA poets & writers for Peace (www.bilingualmca.bravehost.com) as I believe in bilingual literature as most direct route towards international understanding and peace. After that, Laureate poet Dorin Popa invited me to join IFLAC. There I met this marvellous butterfly of peace, Prof. Ada Aharoni, creator of IFLAC PAVE PEACE who since then has been my mentor and inspirer and even presented me to you, an incredible personality whose passionate efforts in this noble direction are really extraordinary.Later I joined HD&HS, from the clever hand of Dr Evelin Gerda Lindner, another muse of Peace on Earth. Your website “Peace from Harmony” (http://www.peacefromharmony.org) working since February 2005, beautiful daughter of IFLAC, has became part of my life. I agree with the Calendar, and with our Address to youth which was created by the co-authors of your site at active participation of the IFLAC including me. I am happy to cooperate with your International and Multilingual site, which part I translated to the Spanish language, that allowed you to open it and in my language. Making a new culture of peace and harmony must start with the organization of intellectuals. We have the responsibility to spread our universal ideals and high moral values in all the environment where our children grow. They are the future of this Earth, the seed of a perfect human cohabitation. As an Educational Psychologist I strongly believe in education of the new generations as the unique technique capable to a true and substantial change of our outrageous civilization. In our global village I encourage all intellectuals to join hands with the website “Peace from Harmony” in this endeavour. I recommend all youngsters to work at schools, colleges and universities to study the phenomena of Leo Semashko’s social philosophy (Tetrasociology), which is derivate from an original and fresh perspective. I think that harmony, as a concord diversity of opinions among us, races, religions and beliefs, creates the perfume of a marvellous garden where all can be happy. We are the example that peace and harmony is a true chance that must prevail among nations. Maria Cristina Azcona, Professor and Poet, Buenos Aires, Argentina April 20, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------
Resume:
The Harmonious Era Calendar is a historically unprecedented multicultural and peaceful document. It opens an Era of Harmony, as the "Golden Age", up to now, this as always been the dream of people through all human history. It offers an extraordinary contribution to the development of a harmonious peace order and culture in a global information society and begins a new chronology for our children and grandchildren. Also, it has a huge positive meaning for all subsequent generations. It has already begun bearing fruit, becoming the ideological vision and worldview of a new peaceful and harmonious global movement called "Making children a priority in the world", which was started on our site back in May 2005.
In summary the Address co-authors: - Invite all citizens of the world concerned for the destiny of children and grandchildren to join our Address to youth, to add, to sign and to promote it. - Offer to support and to develop in a global information society two basic social institutions for the development of the universal human, whose measure is harmony: 1. HARMONIOUS EDUCATION OF WORLD CITIZENS FROM CHILDHOOD and 2. HARMONIOUS PEACE CULTURE, which replaces the obsolete maxim, "want peace - prepare for war" by a new, evolutionary one: "want peace - create harmony", thus preventing poverty, wars, terror and violence. - Call for the cooperation of everyone who shares the values of social harmony and children’s priority as a way of ensuring actual peace and creating a harmonious order and new quality of social existence within a global information society. The platform offered for this cooperation is our International, Multicultural and Multilingual website, A New Culture of Peace from Social Harmony and Children’s Priority http://www.peacefromharmony.org . Our site represents a collection of the positive seeds of ideas and practical means of social harmony from all over the world, from all cultures, religions and civilizations with the purpose of synthesizing them, keeping diversity within unity and creating harmony among diversity. Therefore, since February 2005, our site has brought together more than 140 co-authors from 27 countries of the world. So if you also have ideas about harmonious culture and projects of harmonious education of children, you can also create a page on our site and take part in its aims of world-wide information and public service. - Are sure that in 2 to 3 years, the updated edition of our Address will unite many more authors, cultures and languages on the idea and the Calendar of harmony. Our strongest aspiration is that every day of the year become a celebration or commemoration date of harmonious peace, so that in the year there remain no more days for war, enmity and humiliation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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