(Issue # 001) Second Fortnight October 16-31, 2006

**GLOBAL DEMOCRACY NEWSLETTER**

International e-Newsletter promoting peace building, unity, human rights and global democracy activities

for creating a new world civilization

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Welcome!

 

Dear Friends,


Welcome to the first edition of
 GLOBAL DEMOCRACY NEWSLETTER which is launched with an aim to create awareness for the immediate need of Global Action Plan to unleash the “Power of People” for democratic global Governance and bring an era of peace, unity, prosperity and happiness for all in the world.

 

We are launching this newsletter keeping in mind the interest of world's 2 billion children and generations yet-to-be-born. This newsletter will give special preference to any positive news that aims to put an end to war, poverty, global warming, violation of children's rights and world's problems. The Global Democracy Newsletter is being sent to over 25,000 civil society organizations and networks in 190 countries.


You are invited to contribute quotes, articles, movements, resources and links which can be carried in the next edition of this newsletter.  Your comments on this issue are invited.


Looking forward to hear from you and receiving your feedback and articles!


Shishir Srivastava,
World Citizen living in India

Editor, Global Democracy Newsletter

Email: shishir@wmgd.net

 

Contents
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-- Quotes of the Week
-- Conferences and Events

-- Civil Society World News

-- Courses and Workshops

-- Article of the Week

-- How to submit an article in this Newsletter

-- How to subscribe and unsubscribe from this newsletter

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1) Quotes of the Week
1.1) “There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world and that is ‘an idea’ whose time has come.” -- Victor Hugo

1,2) “Mankind’s problems can no longer be solved by National Governments, what is needed is the World Government and this can best be achieved by strengthening the United Nations System.” -- Jan Tinbergen, Laureate of 1969 Nobel Prize in Economics

1.3) “The world's problem can best be solved by Strengthening the United Nations System to make it an effective instrument of democratic global Governance through Enforceable International Law. It is the idea whose time has come.” -- City Montessori School (CMS), Laureate of 2002 UNESCO Prize & Guinness World Record Holder for being the biggest school of the world (now with over 31,000 students in one city).

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2) CONFERENCES/EVENTS

2.1) 7th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World

2.2) Global Symposium: ‘Towards a New World Civilization’

2.3) Special Session on Children at World Judiciary Summit 2006

2.4) Spiritual Music Concert 

2.5) World Peace Museum

2.6)  International Forum on the Eradication of Poverty

2.7)  9th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL2006)

2.8) The 3rd Bird Flu Summit


2.1) 7th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World

Conference Theme: “The world's problem can best be solved by Strengthening the United Nations System to make it an effective instrument of democratic global Governance through Enforceable International Law. It is the idea whose time has come.”

7th to 12th December 2006 organized by World Unity and Peace Education Department (WUPED) of City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow, India.

Objective: To draft and work on a Global Action Plan for this year's conference theme, CMS is organizing International Conferences of Hon’ble Chief Justices, Judges and Civil Society Organizations of the world every year which are becoming highly popular among the World Judiciary and in the NGOs community whose participation is strikingly increasing year after year. Hon’ble Chief Justices and Judges are highest Judicial authority of their countries who are in the best position to motivate and advise the law makers and people of their countries to come together to strengthen the ‘United Nations System’ with Enforceable International Law. For details and registration, please visit, www.cmseducation.org/article51 Mr Jagdish Gandhi, Founder-Manager, City Montessori School (CMS) is the Convenor of the Conference.

 

2.2) Global Symposium: ‘Towards a New World Civilization’

Date: 8-11 December 2006, Venue: Lucknow, India

www.gpwd.org/symposium

A must attend conference for all the civil society organizations/NGOs around the world

Last date for submitting abstracts/proposals: 25 October 2006

Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, Founder-Manager, City Montessori School (CMS) is the Convenor of the Conference, to contact him please write to info@gpwd.org

 

We take great pleasure in inviting your proposal for presentation and workshops at the 3rd Global Symposium: 'Towards a New World Civilization'. There is no registration or participation fee. All delegates from abroad will be provided with complimentary boarding and lodging facilities along with transport within Lucknow city (Local Transport). The delegates will be required to manage their own travel expenses to and from Lucknow city. 147 participants from 75 countries have confirmed their participation as on 06 October 2006. To see the list of participants, please click here

 

Themes for Presentation and Workshops at Global Symposium:

A.   Structure of World Democracy & World Parliament

B.   Education, Grassroots Movements and Role of Civil Society in building a New World Civilization'

C.   Nuclear Disarmament, Sustainable Development and World Peace

D.   Inter-faith and Inter-religion dialogue and Conflict Resolution

E.   Human Rights (includes Women and Children's Rights)

F.   Role of Media in shaping a 'New World Civilization'   

For details about Global Symposium: www.gpwd.org/symposium

For registration: http://www.gpwd.org/symposium/register.htm

For specific requests, please contact: Mr. Shishir Srivastava, Organizing Secretary of Global Symposium: ‘Towards a New World Civilization’ at info@gpwd.org

**Don't forget to renew your passport before you apply

 

2.3) Special Session on Children at World Judiciary Summit 2006 -- to ensure their safe future and that of generations yet-to-be born. 8 to 11 December 2006, City Montessori School (CMS) Lucknow, India

The Special on Children will involve several activities in which children will involve themselves. Schools worldwide are invited to send a delegation of children (2 to 6 members) between 12 to 17 years of age. Children should arrive at Lucknow (India) on or before 8th December 2006. There will be no registration or participation fees for the children and they will be provided complimentary boarding and lodging along with the adult delegate accompanying them. We cordially invite the School’s Principal and Teachers to join us for this special event. We expect around 80 children from around the world and incase this number increase, we might have to limit the participation. So hurry and register!

World Judiciary ‘Say Yes’ to Children! --- Children from world over are invited to actively participate and present ‘Children’s Appeal for Safeguarding Children’s Future’ at the World Judiciary Summit (7th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World). This will be the most important and touching experience for all delegates. Children can appeal and share different issues that affect them and how they feel when their rights are violated. Children are encouraged to prepare their appeal in their own words and it should be limited to 250 words and two to three minutes per child.

Children coming from abroad will also join students of CMS to share their culture and experiences. For details / registration, please send an email to symposium@gpwd.org and mention 1) Your School’s name, address, city and country 2) Number of Children interested participating 3) Name of Contact person and his/her email id. 4) How you plan to contribute for the Special Session on Children at the World Judiciary Summit 2006.

Last Date to apply 30 October 2006
* Please ensure that all Children have a passport before they register
**Don't forget to renew your passport before you apply

 

2.4) Spiritual Music Concert  a unique opportunity for music lovers!
If you or your organization would like to convey the message of global unity and world peace through music, you are cordially invited to the Spiritual Music Concert at the Global Symposium that aims to awaken the senses through musical notes. Please let us know what your group would like to perform - instrumental, solo singing, group singing, chanting or a dance performance along with your name, organization, country and email. Email to info@gpwd.org

 
If you or your group cannot come here physically, please send your song / instrumental music in a DVD or CD with your name, address and email, so that we may play it during the Symposium (if program space permits) and acknowledge your contribution in the Symposium Background Reader.
Last date to apply: 30 October 2006.

Please send your application /contributions by mail (post) to: Shishir Srivastava, Organizing Secretary, Global Symposium: Towards a New World Civilization, City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow, 226001 INDIA, Tel: 0091-522-2637655 Email: info@gpwd.org

 

2.5) World Peace Museum — Contributions are welcome!

 

We invite your contributions by mail (post) — such as posters, brochures, reports, artistic work and presentations highlighting your/your organization's efforts to make our world a better place to live for all life on earth. All contributions will be acknowledged and displayed at the World Peace Museum at the venue of Global Symposium. Please send your entries on or before 15 November 2006.

 

Please send your contributions by mail (post) to: Shishir Srivastava, Organizing Secretary, Global Symposium: Towards a New World Civilization, City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow, 226001 INDIA, Tel: 0091-522-2637655 Email: info@gpwd.org

 

2.6)  International Forum on the Eradication of Poverty

15-16 November 2006, New York, UN Headquarters


To mark the end of the first United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, the Division of Social Policy, in collaboration with United Nations agencies and civil society, is organising the International Forum on the Eradication of Poverty. The Forum aims to achieve two major objectives. First, it is intended to send a strong message on the importance of a continued and enhanced commitment to poverty eradication in the run-up to 2015. Second, the Forum will provide a valuable opportunity for forward-looking dialogue among stakeholders on the next steps over the next decade towards the realization of the universal goal of poverty eradication.

For more information, see www.un.org/esa/socdev/poverty/PovertyForum/index.html

 

2.7)  9th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL2006)

7-30 November 2006, Kyoto, Japan

 

The conference provides an international forum for sharing experiences and up-to-date technologies among researchers, developers, educators, practitioners and policy makers from a variety of disciplines. ICADL2006, as well as the previous ICADL conferences, focuses on the use, adoption and adaptation of digital libraries, which include work surrounding digital libraries and related technologies, the management of knowledge in digital libraries, and the associated usability and social issues.

For more information, see www.icadl2006.org

2.8) The 3rd Bird Flu Summit

14-15 November 2006, Geneva, Switzerland


The purpose of the 3rd Bird Flu Summit is to prepare the World to fight potentially infectious disease. If you are interested in speaking opportunities please send your request to a New-Fields Research Department. The information you provide will be safeguarded by the New-Fields group, whose subsidiaries may use it to keep you informed of relevant products and services.

For more information, see www.new-fields.com/birdflu3/index.asp

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3) Civil Society WORLD News

3.1) Stand Up Against Poverty on 15 - 17 October 2006

3.2) Professionals demand Global Partnership for Development

3.3) Transparency International survey examines corporate bribery

3.1) Stand Up Against Poverty on 15 - 17 October 2006
The Millennium Campaign, in partnership with the Global Call to Action against Poverty and a large number of national and local MDG campaigners, including people's organisations, citizens groups, faith-based organisations, trade unions and local authorities, is planning a number of entertaining and energising events in various cities around the world to mobilise partners and the general public to take part in the STAND UP Guinness World Record challenge. For more information, see www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/pp.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&b=1806429orwww.un-ngls.org/site/article.php3?id_article=129


3.2) Professionals demand Global Partnership for Development
From 25-27 September, 130 professionals from around the world joined forces in Cambridge to write a Declaration targeted at leaders from across the corporate business, government and charitable sectors. Titled "The 21st Century Leadership Challenge", and with the ambition of tackling the persistent problems of poverty, environmental degradation and government accountability, the Declaration describes seven actions that society's leaders need to take to realize the full potential of strategic alliances between businesses, government and civil society organizations. For more information, see http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/140056/1/3319

3.3) Transparency International survey examines corporate bribery

Overseas bribery by companies from the world’s export giants is still common, despite the existence of international anti-bribery laws criminalising this practice, according to the Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index (BPI), the most comprehensive survey of its kind to date. The BPI looks at the propensity of companies from 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. Companies from the wealthiest countries generally rank in the top half of the Index, but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies. Companies from emerging export powers India, China and Russia rank among the worst. For more information, please see
www.civicus.org/new/media/BPI2006pressreleaseEnglish290906.pdf                                                                                                                    
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4) COURSES/WORKSHOPS 

4.1) Online Masters in Social Development

4.2) 13th Eastern Africa Regional Fundraising Workshop

4.3) The Role of Civil Society Organisations in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights

4.1) Online Masters in Social Development

Fall 2006, Guadalupe, Spain

 

This John Paul II International Institute of Charity and Volunteering online Masters programme covers a variety of topics including: theory and foundations of social development and volunteering, globalization and cooperation, project management and quality in NGOs, social education, introduction to ethics and the culture of solidarity. For more information, see www.ucam.edu/voluntario

4.2) 13th Eastern Africa
Regional Fundraising Workshop

14-17 November 2006, Mombasa, Kenya

 

This event will give you the opportunity to gain skills and know-how delivered by a team of regional and international fundraising professionals, allowing you to examine, evaluate and reflect on your organisation fundraising strategies and practices. For more information, see www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=14846_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

4.3) The Role of Civil Society Organisations in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights

27 November 2006 - 1 December 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark

Participants will acquire background knowledge of how civil society can be understood in relation to the state and to the private sector, and they will learn how various types of societies influence the size and development of and strategies within civil society. The course will review the different ways that civil society organisations can promote and work with human rights, and examples from the international work of the Danish Institute for Human Rights will be included. For more information, see www.humanrights.dk

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5) ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

Article: ‘World Government of World Citizens’

Written by: Idrees Alnaow, Idrees_63@yahoo.com

Al-Watan Newspaper, Saudi Arabia

 

1)     The question of whether the idea of 'One World Government' has achieved any "remarkable success" since its declaration on September 4, 1953,* depends on one's definition of "success."

The "idea" of world government is not new.  The ancient Greeks called themselves "cosmopolites" as did the Stoics. The "idea" of one world and humanity's government has permeated human thought throughout all known history despite tribal, city-state, religious and today's nation-state exclusive claims.

         When technology bypassed national boundaries at the turn of the 19th century via radio waves and the 20th century saw exponential increases in speed, the 18th century nation-state system (a response to feudalism), geared to the speed of the horse, and existing in an anarchic world community, revealed itself increasingly dysfunctional, war being its principal response to fellow nations.

The transcendental difference, however, between present times and all past history is the technological implosion of time and distance compressing the world's humans—communication wise—literally to within nanoseconds of each other. This technological revolution—not to mention potentially global environmental disasters—virtually eliminated all previous fictional differences institutionalized by today's nation-states.

The three human astronauts in the International Space Station, circling the world every 29 minutes at 17,000+ mph, can obviously distinguish no frontiers other than natural ones on the planet's surface.

Given this perspective, nations, like religions, are literally invisible. Only the planet itself surrounded by space and its inhabitants are factually real.

The "one world government" then, by its very existence the political identification for the biological/conceptual oneness of a nascent humanity; is already "successful" as is humanity itself.

From a practical viewpoint, via the World Service Authority, its corporate administrative agency, it exists at present as a global service instrument positively identifying with standard methods this "vertical/horizontal" reality for those who already accept their sovereign status as citizens of the world community.**

It is, in short, a "government" of, by, and for the people of the world to serve their single and communal needs as sanctioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which all Member-States of the United Nations are subject. An apt example of such personal/communal world service would be the Universal Postal Union.

 

2)      The obstacle then that hinders the rapid evolution of the "World Government" is largely mythical. In short, today's political language in stark contrast to the 21st century technical and scientific reality is mainly programmed for a past feudalistic era. The we-they dualism of nations (now allied with religion) blinds the general populace to the reality of species identification and wholeness.

         The advent of the Nuclear Age in 1945, however, when humanity itself became the target of national aggression, is rapidly overcoming this almost hypnotic illusion of "national security." No national leader, for instance, pretends to be able to save humanity from a nuclear holocaust.

 

3)      The US invasion of Iraq historically is only the latest example of the national

         dysfunctional character. The so-called war on terrorism itself is a profession of ignorance allied with desperation. As war is a relapse of both morality and reason descending into the jungle world of political nihilism and desperation is the lot of millions of humans caught in the chains of the mythical nation, so a "war on terrorism" insidiously closes the mind to the self-evident solution of global law based on justice, well-being and freedom.  

 

The irony is daily compounded by such common tools as the telephone, the internet, emails, cyberspace, the computer, TV, communication satellites, GPS's. and by pictures of galaxies billions of light years distant revealed by the Hubble telescope.

A quantum leap in human consciousness, however, is boiling just below the social surface of the general public. Women's movements, refugees, scientists, energy counselors, writers, entertainers, financiers, and last but by no means least, children everywhere, having inherited the adult legacy of nuclear holocaust, have seen through the national war myth and are clamoring for the security of world peace through law.

 

The ancient "cradle of civilization" straddled the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where modern day Iraq is being torn asunder. The World Government has already advised the present governors that a national constitution adopted in a world of anarchy is an oxymoron unless within its pages, world citizenship and world government are recognized not only theoretically but legitimately as the sine qua non for the security, well-being and freedom of the people for whom the articles are provided. Otherwise, it becomes a travesty betraying its people and its fellow citizens throughout the world community  only adding to the chaos both within and without.

 

*The Ellsworth Declaration: www.worldservice.org/ells.html

**See World Service Authority Fact sheet (appended)                                                                    

Above article is submitted by: Garry Davis, World Coordinator, Founder/Head, World Government of World Citizens

WORLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE

POB 9390

South Burlington, VT 05407

Tel: (802) 864-6818

Fax: (802) 862-6723

Email: worldlaw@globalnetisp.net

Internet: http://www.worldgovernment.org/; www.worldgovernmenthouse.com

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GLOBAL DEMOCRACY e-Newsletter Team:

Chief Patron: Mr Jagdish Gandhi, Founder-Manager, City Montessori School, Lucknow, India

Suresh Kumar  (Coordinator, Internet Forum)

Rakesh Sonkar (Coordinator, Education Forum)

Tariq Khan (Coordinator, Civil Society Forum)

Syed Qarar Hasan (Coordinator, Youth Forum)

Shishir Srivastava (Editor and Coordinator, Democracy Forum)

 

GLOBAL DEMOCRACY e-Newsletter  is an initiative of Personality Development and Career Counselling (PDCC) Department of City Montessori School, Lucknow, India

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