Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: Nowadays it happens more often that women become positions of managers and leaders. They are strong women. There are many of them, also in Russia now the mayor of St Petersburg is an active, attractive, intelligent, educated woman. I have many friends like [Assata/Hafsata Biola] and the Nigerian activist Bibi Russel. Women have a great potential. They have a great inner emotional intuition. Woman gives life, she cannot be a killer, this is against the nature, and she is mother. She thinks and tries to act in a way which would keep and develop, teach and improve that unity, and it does not matter whether she is a leader of a state, or is managing some huge organisation or system. I think, it was false, that men had a dominant role in previous centuries and created a number of rules, why a woman couldn’t occupy a leading position. I have my experience too. I am a woman, and I have a high position. Journalists call me “the queen of clowns”. It is a hard profession, and to achieve results is not easy. That’s why it is a difficult question. It is difficult to respond.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Abbas Beydoun: ٌReligions and tradition are not based on human rights. Human rights are relatively a new creation which contradicts the religions and the known systems in the world. Human rights are now the current and human religion which has more respect than any other religion or tradition they should have the priority. So, I think Human rights are more valuable than any other system.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Andries Botha: This is a difficult question to answer because it is a statement and of course it is entirely true. It cannot be, we certainly cannot devolve our systems of wisdom effectively and totally integrate woman fully. As I have already said, it’s a very problematic issue when 50% of our humanity is devalued.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: David, I’m so happy that you asked the question. Remember I told you the other day that about the feather I’m holding? It’s an eagle in whose presence I am can never soar unless the wings are both equal. Nor can the airplane soar when the wings are not equal. That’s the same thing with the human family. The human cannot soar to new heights within unless both wings are equal. That means me and my wife [Sinnika] we cannot soar as a couple and bring our family to new heights we are always seeking unless we both are equal. So it goes for everyone else around. And look at all these beautiful people who feel themselves so important but forgetting the other side. I can never do what I do without complete love and support of my wife. And thus I have been able to succeed to sit in this particular gathering today. But have I done a good enough job? I pray to the Great One I have. I really worked hard to make sure that me and my family be equal, me and my wife be equal so that we can both soar like an eagle and come to new heights within. And that is the question of the world. Why we have no succeeded so far. Because we don’t have that balance, and we don’t have that harmony. Do you know how many women will be destroyed today? Verbally? Just alone verbally, let alone physically, let alone emotionally, let alone spiritually? And then in the west we call it simply being civilized when the very greatest crime we do is that we put down the women rather than lifting them up to new heights as an equal to ourselves. I pray that I have answered your question, David. Thank you for posing it.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Anuradha Koirala: Human society can be in balance and harmony if women are given equal status as men. Human society can be in balance and harmony if women are given equal status as men. So as to create a better world, equalize the status of woman and man, and then we have to give opportunity to women from the grassroot to the high level, and to the educated onesin all the sectors – to participate in all the sectors so as to empower them, and be in balance and harmony.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I agree that it’s a question that we have to ask that how can we build a human society to be in balance and in harmony as long as women are denied positions of power. But one thing that I would also add is not just replacing men with women; we have to also replace the decisions which are so destructive for the human society. I would not like to see more Condoleezza Rices in the world. She is not my sister. So, how do we build a world which reflects the principles of humanity where all of us, especially also us women, have a seat at the table because we do know if we’re not at the table we’re on the menu. So, yes, that is a question for each one of us that how can we talk about having balance or how can we talk about human society being in harmony as long as women are denied a seat at the table. It is not about power. We do not want to change those in power with somebody else in power. We want to get rid of power structures that actually we can have a human society which has that balance.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Ashok Gangadean: Well, I appreciate this question especially, because I am working with David Wolfson as the Co-Chair of the World Wisdom Council with Ervin Laszlo and delighted that we could be here in terms of this great event with Dropping Knowledge. I find this question asymptomatic of a malaise in culture to the question of feminine values. What are feminine values? Well, in contrast to the so-called male-centered and I think really the better term is not so much male, but egocentric values which are hierarchical and have a dominance on us versus them type of mentality. What we call feminine values are more integral, holistic, compassionate, care and nurturing, being sensitive to nature and the entire ecology. But those values are the values of the awakened culture that is hopefully coming after millennia of our great teachers and global wisdom through the ages that have been espousing these so-called feminine values, really global human values, I’d rather say, of compassion and care and mutual love and respect and the sacredness of all life. And, so the question of the absence and the exclusion so far of women from positions of power is a symptom of this deeper malaise of a dominance culture based upon the egocentric structures of separation and fragmentation, alienation and ultimately violence. So, if you seek in this symptomatic way, the absence of women in position of power and the rise of the feminine in all aspects of life, in our culture now, is a symptom of this great shift to a higher form of human culture, the sustainable culture on this planet where we can live as one human family sharing our sacred earth, which is the mission of the World Wisdom Council to help facilitate and promote and accelerate this shift to the emergence of feminine durable human values of compassion and care. And, hopefully this is now what’s happening and as the feminine energy rises in our culture, that is the signal of this great shift to a global consciousness and human consciousness and global spirituality as a basis of our new culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 11:20:00 AM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: Human society cannot be in balance and harmony when there are so few women in positions of power and feminine values are so minimized in all areas. So it is not possible to have balance and harmony under these circumstances. It is very important therefore that for harmony and balance to exist that women must be given an equal place with men, because from the spiritual perspective, everything on the energetic plane must be in balance. The male and female, the positive, the negative, because our universal laws are based on harmony and balance, so whenever you have an imbalance of the male and female energies, especially the oppression of women, you're going to see the manifestation of this imbalance being made manifest on the feminine principle in creation, which is Mother Earth. And I believe that there is a connection between all of the problems that we are seeing being made manifest on earth with this imbalance of the male and female energies, and therefore if we are to experience harmony and balance in the earth realm, within our lives, within our planet, then we must be able to equalize the male and female energies. -- This means that we must increasingly give women the opportunity as well as women themselves taking the opportunity to step into the shoes and up to the plate of leadership roles in all segments of society, political, economic, governmental, and be able to accept their role of equal empowerment.

by Audrey Kitagawa