Aung San Suu Kyi and People's Agend

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Subject: Aung San Suu Kyi and People's Agenda....


Dear Net-Readers:
	The following is fwd message that reflects my mind. Enjoy and call for
it.
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>From:	PO2::"soc-summit@xxxxxxxxxxx" 28-MAR-1995 14:32:47.34
To:	soc-summit@xxxxxxxxxxx
CC:	
Subj:	A PEOPLE'S AGENDA FROM COPENHAGEN (fwd)

 
PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT BY:  PROFESSOR HIRALAL M. DESARDA
Economist & Social Activist at 
NGO FORUM AT THE SOCIAL SUMMIT 
 
Copenhagen, Denmark - 11 March 1995
 
In my perception the root cause of widespread and acute poverty,
ubiquitous unemployment and pervasive social disintegration and
discord is: Centralization, Consumerization and Criminalization
of economy, society and politics in most, if not all, countries
and continents.
 
Therefore, any serious attempt to remedy the above ills have to
begin with genuine "All for All," it calls for de-mystification
of the present resource destructive and anti-social "development"
design and direction.  The pathways and paradigms of economic
growth advocated by the dominant world powers and the Bretton 
Wood Institutions (i.e. World Bank [WB] and International 
Monetary Fund [IMF])are primarily responsible for the present 
danger of a tremendous social chasm taking human kind to the 
brink of the disaster and self-annihilation  with nuclear
destruction and ecological devastation.
 
As such, the more of the same, mania of so-called modernization
mind-set needs to be given go by.  The process of rectification
and revival has to be based on a holistic view of human beings
nature and society.  This calls for questioning and changing the
raison d'etre of industrial model championed by the protagonist
Multinational Corporations(MNC's) today.  The forces represented
and led by the G-7 countries(US, UK, France, Germany, Japan,
Italy, Canada), and the international financial institutions
controlled by them are the main culprits responsible for the
greatest threat posed to the planet and very existence of the
human race.
 
The anthropocentric and consumerist view of the world and
arrogance of the political and economic powers lead us to believe
that science and technology hold the answers to all the ills.
Diabolically enough, bigger and bigger projects and larger and
larger mega production systems and huge investments are
considered by them to be the remedy.   The truth is just the
opposite.
 
The corrective and effective answer can come only through the
values which put human dignity and planetary harmony at the
center-stage.
 
Notwithstanding the platitudes expressed in tons of papers,
hundreds of speeches at the Bella Center do not address this
problem seriously and squarely.  The so called Country reforms
are papers for record and not articles of faith and least of all
agendas for action.
 
Unfortunately, much of what is said in the name of NGO's is also
not different. By and large, the Non Governmental Organizations
(NGO's) represented at most international gatherings including
the Social Summit are also suffering from same "developmental
disease."  In terms of mind set, modes of thinking and methods of
living they are no different from the governments and
Multinational agencies which fund them. They use the same hotels,
drive the same cars, drink the same wine together in the evening
and commute together back and forth between Bella Center and
Holmen exchanging labels and faces.  Yes, there are a few genuine
and committed pro-people organizations and individuals but they
are few and far between and their voices are not heard and often
their thoughts are not allowed to be expressed.
 
Above all, most NGO's  are part of the problem and not a part of
solution.  So, there is need to go beyond this formal
categorization and semantic discussion to a reliance on real
people directly trusting their Wisdom.
 
Given this milieu, the problem definition and the resolution must
emerge from independent actions and powers of people expressed in
grassroots movements.
 
It is very pertinent to ask: Why do they (the NGO's) not ask for
the release of leaders like Aan Sung of Burma and condemn
violations of human rights in unequivocal terms case by case? 
Their refusal to take a political, or even a moral, position is
clear evidence that they do not want to question the status quo
and confront the powers that be.
 
Here, the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi is most relevant and
illuminating.  Martin Luther king rightly said: "Christ gave us
the mission and Gandhi shows us the method."  So, we have to be
wary of the NGO's who are used and who allow themselves to be
misused for a legitimization process by dominant powers of the
world and their allies the world over.  Civil liberties and
democratic rights continue to be crushed in country after
country, day in and day out and NGO's in the name of being
"nonpolitical" are playing a dangerous and dirty game of de-
politicizing the people.  Surely, their no-politics means
politics of supporting the status quo and the establishment.
 
To these NGO's, governments and their real masters the G-7/MNC's,
people are no more than customers and market segments.  They are
no more than commodities.  Their real strategy is to globalize
the marketplace, all nations and all people under their
authority.  That is their real business and at the Social Summit
they are carrying out their project employing smart strategies to
support dumb policies.
 
The current crises can only be cured by recognizing and
respecting cultural plurality and bio-diversity.  Many of the
proposals both at the Bella Center and Holmen outwardly pay lip
service to this concept.  Yet they are not at all prepared to
make a departure in terms of action--whether it is substantially
cutting military expenditure or stopping the resource-destructive
growth-path.
 
At the altar of the Growth-god everything else is sacrificed. 
The Dollarization and Corporatization of the world economy by G-7
forces and their allies in government and non-governmental
organizations are not at all willing to change direction.  Issues
on which this Summit is organized are tackled at the margin. 
Consequently, the growth process and numbers that hurt instead of
helping the worlds poor and neglected and the mechanisms which
aggravate rather than alleviate the poverty and unemployment are
unchanged in substance.  
 
Ultimately, the key question is:  The life-style of the elite and
middle class in the North as well as the South.
 
Gandhi's world-view of economy and society based on total non-
violence, non-acquisitiveness and cultural plurality and
biodiversity alone can save our Planet.  I have undertaken this
journey from India to bring this message to uncorrupted and non-
co-opted sincere friends in Copenhagen.
 
On a moderate total budget of US$2000 contributed by friends, I
am here at the Summit to make this humble appeal to you.  After
the Summit, I am going to Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy,
England, France, Canada and USA to talk to friends, many of whom
I had the pleasure of meeting at the Summit as well as joining
the journey of social transformation through self transformation
for a just world.  I will be lecturing at Gandhi-Center in Berlin
and at Libera Universiat Popolare in Borgosesia, Italy and in
many other countries.
 
Finally, bridging the gap between economics, ecology and ethics
is the major challenge which calls for a new Civilizational
Paradigm based on self-reliance, self-respect, harmony and unity
of all life forms and a global and new moral order different from
materialistic consumeristic decadent culture symbolized by the
world-wide ruling elite today.
 
Very humbly I would like to take to all the people of the world
the message of Mahatma Gandhi which is itself inspired by
Tolstoy, Rousseau and Thoreau--the three visionaries from three
continents.
 
I would like to conclude by suggesting a very clear and concrete
agenda for the consideration of the world community and would
call it the People's Agenda.
 
 
                         PEOPLES AGENDA
 
I.   Disband World Bank, IMF and the Bretton Woods systems and
     stop so called structural adjustment programs forth
     with.
 
II.  Repudiate all debt; halt repatriation of profits, revoke
     all economic sanctions against all nations and end
     discrimination on the basis of Race, Religion, Gender
     and other inequalities.
 
III. Suspend the hydrocarbon based energy model and invest in
     alternative bio-solar energy systems and renewable
     technologies which are environmentally sound,
     sustainable and socially just.
 
IV.  Prohibit MNC's from running businesses in countries
     other than their own and hand over their present assets
     to local agencies of the people.
 
V.   Promote alternative lifestyles of consumption,
     production and transport.  This meat-eating, tobacco
     smoking, alcohol guzzling, private automobile addicted
     and energy intensive gadget dependant life pattern of
     the present day dominant industrial and urban society
     must be radically reduced in a very conscious and rapid
     manner for our planet and peoples to survive.
 
VI.  Work for values of family and sexual morality and
     restraint.
 
VII. Respect for all life forms, unity of life and harmony
     with nature.  In short, total nonviolence should be the
     basis of all human and social activity.
 
Without this, the Social Summit is no more than a farce.
 
 
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**                                                            **
**    Professor Desarda tours many cities from the last       **
**  week in April through the first week in June and can      **
**  speak to large and small forums.  His schedule is being   **
**  prepared now.  Contact Wally Reese ae140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx   **
**  or phone 517-337-7888(O) 517-337-6092(H) 517-337-3883(F)  **
**  to get your college, group, town on the schedule.  The    **
**  general strategy will be to start in the west and move    **
**  east, commencing and terminating tour in Lansing, Mich.   **
**                                                            **
**                International Service Society               **
**                      2601 Cochise Lane                     **
**                   Okemos  Michigan  48864                  **
**                                                            **
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--
grinberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
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