Sep 19, 2006 8:39:15 PM cite

People don't do more out of fear. People need to find their own strength to make the changes they want to see happen. Ghandi said: "You need to be the change you want to see in the world." If we all did one positive thing everyday--what a difference that alone would be.

by Deannahawk

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: I think it is time when civil and apolitical organisations are gaining more and more influence. It is my opinion, because I am an artist, and artists always create their own worlds which always remain open. It is not an elitist group. A picture of an inspired artist moves millions of people and gives them cause for thought, think of Leonardo da Vinci, or of such great genius as Michelangelo and of millions of poets who created cultures…This are organisations of creative people, and I think that every person has a creative bent and has a great potential. We should create social structures which wouldn’t depend on politics. And with their help we can influence the state, because it is a great potential power. And as soon as people realise this, they start to come together and let politicians hear their voices like it used to be in ancient Roman times on public places. At the time I worked in Latin America I was impressed how many Latin Americans there are who have a developed sense of freedom and intellectuality. They often come together to a place and discuss different topics. It’s not a voice of a single man who call on people for a political idea or some political goals, and the rest of them don't stay and listen like a flock of sheep, but it is a dialog of human beings each of them expressing his opinion. And they cannot ignore this opinion. It’s up to us if we make sheep of us, or if we follow the fashion in cloths, food or politics. A human being is a high organized creature, and if he would realise it and grow in his self-organization, and go to the communication level to come together with others, he would be able to do a cultural, non-silent, but cultural, artistic revolution, so to speak, and to let a government, which is only a group of people and we should keep it in mind, act in the way chosen by the majority of people who wants nations and Earth to live on.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: This is a proposal question, because it proposes a global organization of decent people and their global solidarity. That is happening in our world now, because there are some minorities that think in a global way. I think it is very good thing to think how we should help weak people wherever they are to get justice. Decent people are now a minority, so they have to struggle as a global organization and they should make efforts to create a power. People think exactly as the countries of their private benefits.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: Well I think this question deals with the same topic as the last one. I believe that there are many decent and good people living in the United States who are victims of a system that is really doing harm to the rest of the world. I am struck that on this table there is an enormous number of people who conceives a terrible criticism towards the government of the United States, and not towards the American nation; although I do believe that there has been a certain complicity and deafness on the part of the American nation to the disgrace and the errors their government has committed. After all it is the American population who has elected this man now holding sway over the world, and therefore I think that it is up to the decent people to not elect this type of monsters, instead of making a selection from which the whole planet consequently suffers. I think that this circular table in a certain manner sums up the world as a whole, and adjudges unanimously the rash words, the blemish and the disrepute the government of the worlds´ most powerful nation has committed against the planetary welfare. The interests of the worlds´ most powerful nation cannot be a reason for acting against the interests of others and for violating the rights of the rest of the world. This has to be very clear and definitive. It is also symptomatic that the majority of the questions arriving here – it would be interesting to count how many of them are coming from the United States.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: When they have values, principles and.... our cultures.... . When they think collectivly and when there is spirituality in the decentral process and when they turn to think what is family. all that are the solid basics. Where the comunities beginn, from this level, I'm in favour of an international net which has this principles and values: the work with women at the base of the global level, to have a exchange and to learn from each other. ....at the level of the United Nations. When we integrate all this, we could have an exchange at the global level.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Bo, you know, we shouldn’t pay too much attention to our leadership. This is an opportunity for you and me to take responsibility as to how we see our, and define our, relationships to other people, other nations. And, you know government is a very - in my opinion is an instrument which seems to have its own intrinsic willfulness, which doesn’t always – you know which isn’t really about people. It’s more about government itself. And it seems to me the way in which government is constituted and leadership is constituted has really nothing to do with value and quality, it has simply got to do with the process of governing. So, it’s an enormous responsibility on civil society, on you and me, to determine the nuancing of how human beings relate to one another. So you know, it starts at home. It starts in your community. You know, we are intrinsically bound to everybody else. We need to play this out. We need to really - we need to, we need to define the humanity. We need to put our humanity into practice. We need to develop the systems around our homes and around our local communities that can make a change. That’s what I think we need to do and I think that’s the secret. Thank you for the question.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Bo, we have to change the government. You have to change the government so they don’t have to be so divisive. Then again, the division is, it’s everywhere. It’s not only in your government but everywhere. It’s really fascinating that we want those decent people like this circle here that they don’t want to be divisive, they want to be inclusive of all. And their governments are not. But they are the very ones who elected their governments. We tend to forget that the government you and I we elected they are our servants. Bo, the government you elected is servant for you. So what you want is what they need to implement. If you want, if you are a decent person and you want best for the world you have to tell your servants who are your government to be so. And if you don’t they will exactly the way you are at the end of the day. And lo and behold we see over and over all over the world how the people are divisive rather than inclusive. I look forward to the day when the great circle of life wherein which we trust one another, in which love one another and honor one another can become alive in each and every person. So no one will fear one another. Well everyone will honor and respect one another. Can you imagine, Bo, to live that day? Holy shoot! I can hardly wait to that day in which I can be standing next to somebody who honors me and respects me and whom I honor and respect. And we can look at each other’s eyes, into each other’s eyes and heart and beings and realize that even our governments are living what we elected them to do. To honor and respect one another for times and times to come. If it is not happening, Bo, you have much work to do. Then again, me too I guess. I promise to stand by you, to help you to achieve the very question you pose to the world. And I think you for doing so. In my language we say [ku-ya-nuk] which means thank you for posing the question.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: Well, I think the question starts to answer itself, which is first we need to accept this division. We need to understand that we are going to have to create our own sources of power. We are going to have to create our own organization. We are going to have to create our own international relationships and that we can’t rely on so-called political leadership, we can’t rely on elected officials to do that for us. We are going to have to go around them and have to challenge them. We are going to have to act independently in order to bring about change, in order to bring about a different international order, in order to bring about justice, in order to bring about greater democracy and freedom, and we are going to have to see that it is up to us to do that. So, it’s up to us to create those new institutions, it’s up to us to create those new organizations, those new networks and there is no shortcuts in politics, there is no shortcuts in history. It requires understanding that one has to go out beginning to set about doing it and finding other people to do it, because as individuals we can’t do it but collectively, with other people, we have a power and we can. And so, it is about finding those around you who share a vision, who share a set of values, who share a set of beliefs and beginning to take the steps to make that new world possible, beginning to take the step to organize, beginning to find the ways to confront, to challenge the people who are the obstacles, the institutions, the obstacle to bringing about that change. And really, there is no substitute for that, there is no simple way of getting around that. But, in the process of doing that, we begin to answer this question, we begin to find what works, what doesn’t, we begin to ask the question of what in history has worked to bring about these kinds of change, and how we can learn from the mistakes, but also the examples, the positive examples in our history that can lead us towards the insight, that can lead us towards an alternative.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 2:00:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, I think it is up to the decent people of the world to actually stand up to the actions of their leaders which is self-serving and causing more conflict. If people had more people to people connections, they would realize, for example, President Bush perhaps does not represent all Americans, does not represent the desires of most Americans; that Tony Blair does not represent what most of the people in England want; or John Howard doesn’t represent people of Australia. Perhaps it represents President Bush more. So, it is really about connecting with each other and wanting to know more about each other. I think it’s one way to actually build a world which is not so divided because if leaders are allowed to actually define our connections, we will only see a divisive world. There would not be peace in the Middle East; there would not be peace between India and Pakistan. But when people can talk to each other, when they can share their experiences with each other, we actually find that we have the same aspirations: a safe secure future, future for our families and children, where our children do not have to think about being suicide bombers or fighting unjust wars. So that kind of connection is very important and that is what we can do to be global citizens.

by Anuradha Mittal