ISSN
1440-9828
August 2008
No 400
From the Middle
East to Asia Pacific:
Arc of Conflict
or
Dialogue of
Cultures and Religions?
Seventh Annual Conference
Globalization
for the Common Good:
An Interfaith Perspective
30 June
– 3 July 2008
Trinity
College
University
of Melbourne
Fredrick
Töben introductory comment:
I attended the conference specifically to hear what speakers had to say about
matters Jewish Holocaust-Shoah and to assess what prominence this historical
episode would assume in these proceedings. What follows below is the actual
program listing speakers and topics canvassed during this conference,
interspersed with some of the notes I made at the time. In particular, when Dr
Abrahamovich and Mr Jones made their presentations that their canvassing of
things Holocaust-Shoah, I noted their stories of Jewish suffering did not
anymore penetrate the psyche of those who were fully aware of what Jews at
this very moment are doing to Palestinians. Generally then, the 150+
conference attendees were concerned citizens who came from all over the world
and who all were imbued with that burning desire to contribute something
towards making this world a little safer – through DIALOGUE and not through
CONFRONTATION.
*Monday
30 June:
3.00 – 5.00 pm - Registration - Evan Burge Building, Trinity
College.
*
7.00
pm OFFICIAL LAUNCH –
PUBLIC FORUM -
Sidney
Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne -
Chair:
Prof
Joseph Camilleri,
Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Welcome:
Campbell
Bairstow,
Trinity College, The University of Melbourne
In
a few words Mr Bairstow stated how the university college is pleased to be
hosting the conference.
*
Introduction:
Dr
Kamran Mofid,
Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative, UK
Dr
Kamran Mofid was proud that Melbourne is hosting this 7th
conference and he hoped all
participants from all over the world who have arrived in Melbourne to attend
this conference will find it fruitful and informative.
*
Keynote
speakers: Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia: People
of the Book - Reconciling religious fundamentals with universal human rights.
Justice
Kirby spoke well on how the marginalized had won some human rights and how
tolerance began the process of acceptance – but more needs to be done,
especially within the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Disagreements, especially about beliefs, are normal and he pointed out that he
and his partner of 40 years have disagreements on many issues as well.
*
Message
from His Excellency Mohammad Khatami, former President of Islamic
Republic of Iran
H.
E. Khatami’s message was read out on his behalf because owing to internal
politics he could not be present. He is pleased that this 7th
conference is being held because when he made the statement on the Dialogue of
Civilizations to the United Nations General Assembly in September 1998, he had
hoped it would develop into an annual international event. This happened when
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared 2001 the International Year of
Dialogue Among Civilizations.
*
Prof
Muddathir
Abdel-Rahim,
International Institute of Islamic thought and Civilisation, Malaysia: Islam
and the West: Striving for more effective dialogue and cooperation for peace.
Although
satisfied with the fact that a conference has been held in seven consecutive
years there is frustration in that Dialogue has only dented basic issues
of
peace and security not to mention educational and cultural problems especially
problems that beset interfaith relations.
*
Concluding
Remarks: Prof Joseph Camilleri, La
Trobe University, Melbourne
As
one of the driving forces behind multicultural and interfaith dialogue
endeavours in Australia Professor Camilleri enthused all participants to
become involved during these next few days.
_________________________
Tuesday
1 July: 9.00 am - Plenary Session - Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College -
Moderator:
Maureen Postma, General Secretary, Victorian Council of Churches.
*
Opening
Remarks:
George Lekakis: Chairperson, Victorian Multicultural Commission
Mr
Lekakis showcased Victoria as a successful multicultural state where people
from all parts of the world have
made their home. This is one of the reasons that well qualifies Melbourne in
hosting next year’s World Parliament of Religions.
*
Keynote
Addresses:
30
min presentations, followed by question and answer session
Prof
Amin Saikal, Australian
National University: Afghanistan and
Iraq: Between democracy and radical Islamism.
Prof
Saikal sketched the problem facing the USA in its endeavour to impose a
pro-western democratic model on to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is
antithetical to Islamic teachings where western secularism is
seen as a threat to social cohesion, among other things. The only way out of
this is to have a meaningful dialogue and thereby eliminate terrorism and
extremism that will continue to flourish if the USA does not open itself to
the world of Islam.
*
Dr Ali Khoshroo, Former
Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran: Secular,
religious dialogue and controversy.
Dr
Khashroo stressed that Islam shapes the minds and deeds of its believers –
Oma – it is a way of life.
Modernity
undermines the unity presented by Islam in that it introduces the ideology of
secularism, which essentially is a cultural invasion wherein western
democratic values are propagated rather than Islam absorbing such values and
digesting them.
Fredrick
Töben asked: Is the intellectual and spiritual
decline of the West a result of science becoming a substitute religion? – I
attended a climate change conference in Canberra: ‘Imagining the Real Life
on a Greenhouse Earth’, 11-12 June 2008. A number of speakers claimed to be
agnostics, sceptics, if not atheists, but propounded their views as dogma and
labelled those who refused to accept is as ‘climate change deniers’. Dr
Khoshroo responded with insight as befitting the Islamic world view.
*
10.30
Morning tea
I
was confronted by one of the organisers of the conference that I had asked a
stupid question and that Global Warming was an undisputable fact. I replied
that in science we have hypothesis and theories that capture reality, which
breaks down, as it did in Marxist social theory, when we move away from
nature, etc.
*
11.00
Concurrent Sessions: Each
session: three papers, 20 minutes each, followed by Q & A
Session
A -
Sharwood Room - Moderator: Rev Merrill Kitchen, Churches of Christ
Theological College, Melbourne.
*
Prof
Neil Ormerod,
Australian Catholic University: Virtues
in a globalized context.
Professor
Ormerod introduced the Bernard Lonergan taxonomy of individual, social and
cultural virtues as a useful model to reframe old and generate new virtues,
then from a Christian tradition brought into consideration the virtue of hope
that somewhat dissipates the cultural delusions prevailing our globalized
world.
*
Dr
Tahereh Ebrahimi-Far,
Islamic Azad University, Tehran: Globalization,
women and dialogue
of culture.
Dr
Ebrahimi-Far developed a narrative where women work together with men in a
co-operative atmosphere of open dialogue – raising and educating children
– where women are the facilitators of that dialogue. She stressed that
globalisation and dialogue will transcend geographic and cultural boundaries
and produce a culture of peace through co-operative focus on economic, social
and cultural problems.
Question
from Fredrick Töben:
How does Iranian society cope with the radical feminists’ dialectic of death
that pits women against men, where men are blamed for producing every evil
imaginable?
Dr
Ebrahimi-Far said she did not understand the question, and Töben stated that
that actually answers his question, i.e. that feminists have as yet not
undermined the Iranian social order as is the case in western democratic
societies.
*
Sayyed
Nadeem Kazmi,
Al-Kholi Foundation: Conflict or dialogue? Reconciling religion and modernity through a
multicultural reality.
Mr
Kazmi stressed that as Muslims the task confronting multicultural societies is
not only to respond specifically to a possible Islam versus ‘liberal and
democratic West’ dichotomy but rather to cope with the challenges that
emerge out of their own communities – without embracing a ‘parochial and
regressive vision’ that leaves
‘a void in religious intellectualism’.
*
Dr
Chandi Prasad Chapagain,
Imagine Nepal & Plan Nepal: Application
of positive approaches in enhancing human capacities and sustaining a human
friendly global society.
Dr
Chapagain presented a delightful talk that began with a visual presentation of
Nepal, its physical beauty and appreciative inquiry, among others, as a
driving force to transform and create a new society where harmony reigns.
*
Session
B -
Drama Room - Moderator:
Ian Fry, Melbourne College of Divinity.
Prof
Abdullah Saeed,
University of Melbourne: Rethinking
the charge of distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures: A contextualist
reading of relevant Qur'anic texts.
Professor
Saeed detailed how positive references in the Qur’an to Judaism and
Christianity have been distorted through the doctrine of tahrif, which needs
to be re-thought.
*
Dr
Peter T. Chang,
La Trobe University Bendigo: A
comparative analysis of the Confucian and Christian worldviews.
Dr
Chang asked whether the Christian West and Confucian East have enough
commonality for peaceful co-existence. At the hand of works by Confucianist
Wang Yang-ming and Anglican bishop Joseph Butler he traced the differences and
similarities, then concluded that indeed their respective world views contain
subjective differences , which however would not be an impediment to reach
understanding on basic moral assumptions operating in both religions.
*
Mudassar
Aziz,
Ahmadiyya Anjuman, Lahore: Concept of
God in religions of the world.
Mr
Aziz’s essential message was that there is not a God of the Jews, Christians
or Muslims but that there is only one God of all religions and the concept of
universal Brotherhood is the foundation for any interfaith dialogue. He says
an 86% commonality exists within all major religions of the world and thus
‘hating and shunning one another’ is unproductive.
*
Session
C – Postgraduate Panel -
Junior Common Room - Moderator: Andrew Wicking, Melbourne
College of Divinity & Trinity College the University of Melbourne
Elyse
Rider,
Monash University: Multiple cultures on
colonised land: An ethical framework for interculturality in an Australian
city.
“A
post colonial critique and ethical framework will be revealed as crucial to
the integrity of intercultural ecology.”
Elizabeth
Chittock,
University of Tasmania: Difference
matters.
‘Religious
tensions arising with the globalisation process suggest that the experiences
and stresses of encountering and adapting to difference are not always
understood or managed well by individuals.’
*
Suma
Parahakaran,
University of Sydney: Thailand’s
border conflict – its implications in the global scene: Conflict resolution
and ongoing dialogue through human values education.
*
1.00
Lunch
*
2.00
Concurrent Sessions
Session
A -
Sharwood Room -
Special
Panel – Women
and the Interfaith Movement: Women's Issues, Women's Roles
- Moderator:
Perle Besserman, author of several
books on women and faith, Zen practitioner
Jessie
Kaur Singh:
Sikh perspective
Revd
Janet Turpie Johnstone:
Indigenous perspective
Rachel
Woodlock: Muslim
perspective
Isobel
Crombie:
Hindu perspective
Di
Hirsh:
Jewish perspective.
*
Session
B -
Drama Room - Moderator:
Dr Luca Anceschi, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Dr
Dvir Abrahamovich,
University of Melbourne: Breaking
the ice: Reconciliation initiatives between Jews and Muslims, Israelis and
Palestinians.
Dr
Abrahamovich stated that a two-state solution is the only solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He gave an example of successful collaboration
where Palestinians and Jews together visited Yad Vashem to familiar themselves
with the Holocaust, then take a trip to Auschwitz to see the place where 1.5
million Jews were killed, where the ‘diabolical selections for the gas
chambers’ were made, hear testimony from Birkenau survivors, place a candle
at the wall where Jews were shot and have the Arabs reading out the names,
‘a walk to the sauna where Jews were deloused and shorn of their hair’,
‘together they shed tears and sang traditional songs of the Holocaust’.
Afterwards
a brief question time elicited one from a lady who indignantly asked about
Israeli ethnic cleansing tactics. The response was waffly and I sensed that I
didn’t really have to ask a question because there were other critical
voices in the audience.
*
Ian
Fry,
Melbourne College of Divinity: Middle
East conflict: Implications for inter-faith relations.
Urbane
and softly-spoken Ian Fry traced the development of the Middle East conflict,
the modern era beginning with the Balfour Declaration, through to World War
Two/Holocaust, Yom Kippur/Ramadan War of 1973, 9:11 and the second US attack
on Iraq in 2003.
Reassessment
of fundamental religious understanding indicates that we are entering a new
phase of human history.
*
Michael
Shaik,
Australians for Palestine: An open
wound: The Israel-Palestine conflict as a driver of interfaith discord.
Mr
Shaik stated that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will last through this
century the pattern of creating an apartheid state is evident by Israel
unilaterally annexing Palestinian lands. He claims that the two-state solution
is now lost and there is only now a one state solution that will bring peace
to the area. The settler ideology cannot be maintained anymore because they
behave as if they are above the law. They claim that God gave the Jewish
people the land – forever. Also, Jewish people are free of the sin of
murder, for example the ethnic cleansing of Hebron and the Operation Defensive
Shield begun on 29 March 2002.
FT
comment: During Mr Shaik’s presentation Dr Abrahamovich read a paper, then
fiddled with his mobile phone, then walked out and did not return. It seems
that Mr Shaik’s clear presentation was devastating to what Dr Abrahamovich
suggested should be done to achieve a two-state solution to the problem. Dr
Shaik stressed how Dr Abrahamovich was merely fiddling around the edges of the
problem, all the time ensuring that an apartheid-like structure continues to
be established in Palestine, something that inevitably will lead to a
one-state solution. See his letter on page 8.
*
Session
C -
Junior Common Room -
Moderator:
Elyse Rider, Monash University.
Dr
Hasan Ugur,
Fatih University, Istanbul: Educational
system in universities supports globalization for the common good.
Dr
Ugur stated that university students will be the ones pushing the
globalisation agenda by supporting healthy interactions that foster tolerance.
‘The globalized university supports healthy interactions and creates mutual
positive effects …character education.’
*
Dr
Gregory Lewis Bynum,
State University of New York: Kant’s
critical humanism applied to selected issues in cross-cultural and interfaith
human rights thought and education.
Dr
Bynum’s talk was perhaps one of the most demanding presented at the
conference because he qualified the Kantian ‘critical humanism’ approach
by retaining the Categorical Imperative, balancing rationalism and empiricism
by ‘holding a practical attitude’ and embedding all this within a
responsive and responsible context of human rights. C S Peirce would perhaps
recognize his abductive-hypothetical approach emerging therefrom.
*
Dr
Felicity Rawlings-Sanaei,
University of New South Wales: Cultural
and religious diversity: the challenges and responsibilities for Australian
higher education.
Dr
Rawlings-Sanaei’s aim was to address the problems of social cohesion
emerging in a pluralistic society, and how universities
attempt to create the ‘global citizen’ by structuring their
curriculum accordingly.
*
3.45
Afternoon tea
*
4.10
Close of session
5.00
Reception at Government House with the Governor of Victoria, HE Jan de Kretser
*
7.30
Multicultural Evening hosted by the City of Moreland
_____________________________
Wednesday
2 July
9.00
Plenary Session -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College -
Moderator:
Dr Melanie Landau, Monash University.
*
Most
Rev Dr Peter Carnley,
former Anglican Primate of Australia:
Ecumenism, other faiths and the peace of
the world.
*
Rabbi
Melissa Weintraub,
Chairperson, Encounter, United States: Warriors,
prophets, peacemakers, and disciples: Peace-building leadership in the face of
religious-inspired violence.
*
10.15 Morning
tea
*
10.45
Plenary Session -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College -
Showcase
Victoria: Multicultural policy in action.
Moderator:
Bruce Meagher, SBS Director
- Strategy & Communications – Introduced by Ian
Fry, Melbourne College of Divinity.
*
Yasser
Soliman,
Victorian Multicultural Commission.
Hass
Dellal,
Exec Director Australian Multicultural Foundation.
Commander
Ashley Dickinson,
Victoria Police.
Nuangwong
Boonyanate,
Vic Department of Education.
Rabbi
Jonathan Keren Black,
Jewish Christian Muslim Association .
Michael
Ulbrick,
CEO, City of Darebin.
Sam
Afra, Chair,
Victorian Ethnic Communities Council.
*
12.45 Lunch
*
1.45
Concurrent sessions
Session
A - Sharwood
Room -
Moderator:
Dr Bruce Duncan, Yarra Theological Union.
*
Prof
G Maddox,
University of New England, New South Wales: Surmounting
the wall.
*
Dr
Anthony Steel/Prof Jude Butcher,
Australian Catholic University: Engaging
beyond differences.
*
Judith
Dunne,
Victoria Goodwill Unit: Understanding the causes of the conflict in the Middle East and the use
of cross-global meditation and subjective visualisation for the promotion of
peaceful resolution of service.
*
Session
B -
Drama Room -
Moderator:
Andrew Wicking, Melbourne College of Divinity & Trinity College the
University of Melbourne.
*
Nasya
Bahfen,
Muslim Community Co-operative, Australia Ltd, RMIT University, Melbourne: A global growth industry:
Australian media and Islamic finance.
*
Amzad
Hossain,
Curtin University, Perth: Regional
conflicts and technologies: Positioning Australia and Bangladesh.
*
Prof
Muhammed Iqbal Anjum,
Islamabad: Illusive and regressive
globalization: issues and challenges for Pakistan’s economy.
*
Session
C -
Junior Common Room -
Moderator:
Larry Marshall, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
*
Dr
Ali Omidi,
University of Isfahan: The challenges
between Iran and the West.
Dr
Omidi stated that there must be more bi-lateral dialogue between Iran and the
West on human rights, democracy, Arab-Israeli conflict and terrorism.
Fredrick
Töben made a statement to clarify what the Iranian President, Dr Ahmadinejad
had said about Israel, i.e. that the racist, Zionist state will dissolve like
the Soviet Union disintegrated. FT also stated that he had attended the
December 2006 Teheran Holocaust Conference, which was not a revision but a
review, and that it showed up western hypocrisy: you can question anything,
nothing is sacred. You can even deny the existence of God but you cannot
question/deny the details of the Holocaust.
*
Dr
Erica Ehrenberg,
American Institute of Iranian Studies: American-Iranian
dialogue.
*
Dr
Natalie Mobini-Kesheh,
Australian Baha’i Community: Islam’s
encounter with post-Islamic religion: the case of the Bahai’is.
*
3.30
Book Launch -
Dining Room, Trinity College
A
Non-Violent Path to Conflict Resolution and Peace Building: Essays
from Globalisation for the Common Good 6th Annual Conference, Istanbul, edited
by Kamran Mofid, Alparslan Açikgenç,
Kevin J McGinley and Şammas Salur. To be launched by Prof Dr Alparslan Açikgenç,
Vice Rector, Fatih University, Istanbul.
*
Afternoon
Tea
*
4.15 Plenary
Session -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College. Moderator: Dr Ruwan Palapathwala,
Trinity College & Melbourne College of Divinity.
*
Reverend
Professor James Haire,
Charles Sturt University, NSW: The
search for communities of peace: An international reflection on Christian –
Muslim relations.
Reverend
Haire’s presentation attempted
to present a common world view
*
His
Royal Highness Prince Hassan of Jordan
– video: Ensuring security without
borders: Global commons for the common good.
*
5.30 Close
of Session
*
7.00
Conference Dinner –
Trinity College Dining Room
_________________________
Thursday
3 July
9.00
Plenary Session -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College. Moderator: Jim Kenney,
Interreligious
Engagement Project, United States.
*
Prof
Chaiwat Satha-Anand,
Thammasat University, Bangkok: Bejeweled
dialogue: Illuminating cultural conflicts in the twenty-first century.
*
Jeremy
Jones,
Co-Chair,
Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims & Jews; former
President of Executive Council of Australian Jewry:
Internationalisation of tension /
Internationalisation of hope.
Mr
Jones stated that there are two types of people: the sane and the insane, and
he claimed to hate attending conferences. He mentioned the 2001 UN conference
on racism in Durban where he was prevented from presenting his paper.
Responding
during question time, Prof Chaiwat Satha-Anand, , said that he has a problem
with the sane-insane divide because ‘I’m not sure which side I’m on’.
He also stated that the win-lose divide is the wrong way to think
because ‘we must dialogue between the sane and insane’.
After
the session Töben asked the moderator why he did not accept Töben’s
question. ‘The Rabbi asked me not to take a question from you!’ So much
for a conference where dialogue was supposed to be preferred over
confrontation. It smacked of hypocrisy, but then that is how Jeremy Jones has
been operating since 1996 when he began his campaign of legal persecution
against Töben.
*
10.15
Morning tea
*
10.45
Concurrent Sessions
Session
A
- Sharwood Room -
Moderator:
Dr
Michális S. Michael,
La Trobe University, Melbourne.
*
James
Quilligan,
Centre for Global Negotiations, United States: Making
the great adjustment: coalition for the global commons.
*
Rev
Merrill Kitchen,
Churches of Christ Theological College, Melbourne: Holding
hands and bearing arms: Global challenges for Christian communities of faith
in the 21st century.
*
Jim
Kenney,
Interreligious
Engagement Project, United States: Crossing
the divide.
*
Session
B -
Drama Room - Moderator:
Dr Jonathan Ritchie, Deakin University, Melbourne.
*
Dr
Ruwan Palapathwala
and Andrew Wicking, Melbourne College of Divinity & Trinity College
the University of Melbourne: From
Middle East to South East Asia: Buddhist elements in conflict and dialogue.
*
Prof
Toh Swee-Hin,
Griffith University: A Buddhist in
Mindanao: Reflections on conflict, violence and the building of a culture of
peace in the southern Philippines.
*
Rev
Dr Ji Zhang,
Centre
for Theology and Ministry & the Confucian Institute, the University of
Melbourne: Christian and Buddhist/Daoist
dialogue in the 7th century Tang China: A comparative study of the Nestorian
Stele.
*
Session
C – Postgraduate Panel -
Junior Common Room -
Moderator:
Dr Luca Anceschi, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Bob
East,
University of Southern Queensland: The
Abu-Sayyaf: Terrorism in Sulu Province.
*
Laeticia
Anderson,
University of Sydney: Issues in
Australian Perspectives towards Islam.
*
Grace
Sharon,
Trinity College, University of Melbourne: Islam,
Christianity and Judaism: Conflict resolution in Jerusalem and beyond.
*
12.30
Plenary Session -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre, Trinity College -
Announcing
the 2009 Globalisation for the Common Good Conference (Chicago).
*
Dr
Kamran Mofid,
UK, Jim Kenney, Interreligious
Engagement Project, United States, Prof Yahya Kamalipour, Purdue
University, United States.
*
1.00 Lunch
*
1.45
Concurrent sessions
Session
A, Sharwood
Room -
Moderator:
Craig Woolley, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
*
Prof
Abdel-Hady,
Qatar University: Reconstructing Muslim identity in a globalised world.
*
William
Shwe,
Program Director, Karen Marist Mission: Burma
and the Karen experience on the Thai-Burma border.
*
Dr
Jonathan Ritchie,
Deakin University, Melbourne: Nation
Building in the Pacific: Comparisons with the Middle East?
*
Session
B -
Drama Room - Moderator: Ian Fry,
Melbourne College of Divinity
Professor
Ismail Albayrak,
Asia-Pacific Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue, Australian Catholic
University: Breaking the Ice:
Reconciliation initiatives between Jews & Muslims, Israelis and
Palestinians.
*
Hussein
Tahiri,
Monash University, Melbourne: Dialogue:
The Kurdish question in the Middle East.
*
Assoc Prof Michael Hamel-Green, Victoria University, and Ms Jessica Morrison, ICAN: A vision of a nuclear free Middle East.
*
Session
C -
Junior Common Room -
Moderator:
Margaret Papst, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
*
Shamin
Samani,
Curtin University, Perth: Cultural
means and media in family violence mitigation.
*
Dr
Miriam Ehrenberg,
City University of New York: Applying
psychotherapy techniques to ethno-religious conflicts.
*
Dr
Ann Hallock & Prof. Bahman Dadgostar,
Hope Consulting Institute, United States: Psychological
aspects of prejudice.
*
Session
D -
Buzzard Lecture Theatre -
Special
Panel – Fostering Global Harmony:
An Interfaith Dialogue.
Moderator: Professor Yahya Kamalipour, Purdue University, United
States.
Professor
Fred Woods,
Brigham Young University.
Rev
Merrill Kitchen,
Churches of Christ Theological College, Melbourne.
Melanie
Landau,
Monash University.
Professor
Toh Swee-Hin,
Director, Multi-Faith Centre, Griffith University.
Swami Shankarananda, Shiva Ashram, Melbourne.
*
3.30
Afternoon tea
*
4.00
Plenary Session, Buzzard
Lecture Theatre, Trinity College. Moderator: Dr Ruwan Palapathwala,
Melbourne College of Divinity & Trinity College, University of Melbourne -
Arc of Conflict or Dialogue of Cultures
and Religions? Future Directions
Prof
Chandra Muzaffar,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang.
Perhaps
the best speaker who succinctly summed up the world's problems was
wheelchair-bound Professor Chandra Muzaffar. He focused on power politics and
how the drive for hegemony includes strategic groups, which gives rise to the
question/problem of Israel. The other problem is CCC: Casino Corporate
Capitalism and the question of whether liberal capitalism can continue to
operate in the way it does, for example 94% of it is unproductive and consists
of speculations. Unfortunately the world media does not help to expose the
truth of what is going on. Universities should re-organize their economics
curriculum and reject liberal capitalism and teach spiritual values. Attitudes
need to be transformed through education, law, public policies and through
institutions.
*
Prof
Joseph A. Camilleri, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Professor
Camilleri maintained that the decline of the empire – Imperial Centre –
needs to be treated with calmness and without tantrum…
Close
of Conference - Group Photo at lunchtime
____________________________________________________________________________
Israel’s
refusal on borders
Michael
Shaik, Australians for Palestine, Hawthorn Victoria
The
Australian Financial Review, 25
June 2008.
Vic
Alhadeff of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies is incorrect when he
claims that the Arab world’s refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist
lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian problem 9Letter, June 20).
In
2002, the Arab League unanimously offered full normalisation of relations and
comprehensive peace agreements with Israel if it would withdraw from the
Occupied Palestinian Territories and return to its recognised borders. Last
year the League repeated the offer.
On
both occasions Israel ignored the offer and pressed ahead with its program of
expanding Jewish settlements through the West Bank and Palestinian East
Jerusalem.
In
March, the Israeli Housing Ministry acknowledged that it was using the period
of “calm” that followed the Annapolis Peace Conference to accelerate the
expansion of Jewish settlements in and around East Jerusalem.
In
his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, former US President Jimmy Carter
wrote: “The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle
East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international
law, with the Roadmap For Peace, with official American policy, with the
wishes to the majority of its own citizens – and honour its own previous
commitments – by accepting legal borders.”
It
is Israel’s refusal to do so, not Arab intransigence, that lies at the heart
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
________________________________________
Talk:
With Chris Kenny
: Stick
to the facts and rational debate
The
Advertiser,
9 July 2008
The
term climate change “deniers” is vial abuse used by climate change
proponents who are not prepared to debate the facts. It is distasteful because
the only other time we hear the term is in relation to extremists who deny the
Holocaust.
Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd’s climate change guru, Ross Garnaut, used the standard
tactics of climate-change fanatics this week. He ran a fear campaign to
justify the ideological position, telling us “we’ll all be ruined”.
Then, when leading Labor realist and New South Wales treasurer Michael Costa
injected some reason into the debate, Professor Garnaut retaliated with the
“denier” abuse.
If
Professor Garnaut, an economist, is so sure of his fact, he should stick to
rational debate rather than emotional and distasteful invective.
There
are four main reasons the climate-change lobby choses not to stick to the
facts.
First,
the facts don’t suit them. Recent statistics on global average temperatures
don’t support the apocalyptic scenarios.
The measurements from the UK’s Hadley Centre, an institute of choice for
climate change believers around the world, show global average temperatures
have dropped since 1988. Don’t take my word for it: look at figure 5.1 in
Professor Garnout’s report.
To
be scrupulous, the Hadley Centre still says global warming is happening but
advocates have to make the awkward argument, while temperatures have been
dropping or plateau for the past decade, they will rise again soon.
Second,
the burden of climate change measures on our economy will be taxing. The push
to reduce carbon emissions through levies, emissions trading or subsidising
renewable energy will always cost us more. Climate change action means higher
costs. It is as simple as that. They have arguments to justify the costs but
they are difficult to sell. So they stick to emotion.
The
third reason to avoid the facts is, in many ways the clincher; no matter what
Australia does, it will make no difference. Australia produces only 1.5 % of
global emissions. We could shut our whole nation down, scrap our cars, close
our factories and huddle at home under blankets, and global carbon emissions
would continue to grow strongly.
China’s
economic growth would add our national carbon emissions to its own annual
output, forever, within a year. So climate change enthusiasts are faced with
telling us to pay more for power, petrol and food, yet our paying will, most
likely, make no difference.
The
fourth reason the facts go missing is politics. Labor has invested so much
political capital in the issue that it is locked into supporting the fanatics.
Labor rode the Al Gore-inspired climate change wave of fear to the election,
linking the drought to climate change and promising that ratifying Kioto would
make a difference.
The
politics of climate change has been so powerful that, until recently, the
Liberals were determined to match Labor’s excesses. Politics has made the
facts, indeed, inconvenient. But as it transpires, politics is much easier to
predict that climate.
A
month ago on this page, I predicted the political maelstrom looming for the
Rudd government over its climate change policy and suggested the Liberals
“might see the sense of stepping back and letting Labor ride this runaway
car alone”.
The
Liberals are starting to do this, at least realizing the madness in Australia
getting ahead of the rest of the world, penalising ourselves for no
environmental gain.
The
Liberals should go further, express informed scepticism about the issue and
debate some of the facts outlined above. But they won’t show that amount of
spine because they don’t want to be dubbed “deniers”.
Instead,
they will agree the planet is heading for disaster but just promise a more
cautious approach. That alone, however, could be enough to deliver them
government in 2010.
Chris
Kenny is a journalist, author, and former advisor to state and federal
governments.
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